EDITOR’S NOTE: What’s your “good stuff?” When it all seems like it’s just too much, make a good stuff list, the good things … what’s on your list?
Please share your good stuff with Pioneer readers – Lord knows we can all use good stuff – editor@tillamookcountypioneer.net.
By Butch Freedman
I’m a curmudgeon, too quick to get drawn into the dark side of experience, to grumble and groan about the state of the world. In my defense, I’ve this year had multiple reasons to feel justified in my misanthropy. Thanks trump. But I’m not going to indulge that hatred today. I’ve done enough of that lately. Sure, sometimes it does help to give words to my discouragement; sometimes it only brings me lower. So today, I want to indulge my Oprah side (yes, I can be a sensitive guy) and appreciate all the good things in my life and beyond. The lovely experiences are still there, dummy (me, being the dummy here).
Heading the list of good things in my life are my friends and family. They give me hope and sustenance. Don’t know where I’d be without them. Or if I’d be.
Nature is also a great source of comfort. I love living close by the Pacific. I walk along the beach most every day and dive in (with my wetsuit) when I can.
I live in a community that for once in my life provides a true sense of neighborliness. People come to each other’s aid here when needed, and look out for one another. We also have fun and good talk and play games (Scrabble, I mean.)
I appreciate my creature comforts and too often take them for granted. Not everybody in the world has enough to eat or safe places to live.
I love my car. I know that’s a little crazy. But it’s fairly new and has all these new bells and whistles that I’m still trying to learn how to use. Yeah, and it’s a bright blue color, surf blue it’s called. I can get in and drive anywhere I want. Think about how we take this sense of mobility for granted here. That doesn’t happen in Ukraine—for one example.
Bev and I go out to eat and don’t worry about the check.
I’m still healthy and mobile at an age where many of my generation are ailing or long-gone. I’ve outlived my dad by 10 years already, due mostly to the availability of good medical care. I wish all Americans had that advantage—one that has been or will be largely taken away in this administration (sorry for the brief lapse into negativity.)
I love television. At least some of it. I particularly love watching sports on the tube. It takes me away from the sturm and drang of the “real” world. Go Blazers!
Art keeps me going. Both in the creation and appreciation. People who make art, whether in music or writing or graphically, provide the world with other ways to see and feel. They bring beauty. Where would we as a civilization be without our artists?
I’m not much of a religious person, but I believe in spirituality, the sense of a collective consciousness that moves us toward a moral and ethical good. Call it God if you want. I’ll stick with faith.
I love to read. Don’t know how I’d exist without books. If you don’t read, try it. Your world will expand. Join a book club while you’re at it. We have a great one in our town.
I also love the rain. Might as well. Makes me appreciate the sun when it comes.
Now I’m going to close down my computer and go drive to the YMCA to work out and talk to some buddies about the upcoming baseball season. See what I mean.