Fortunate and Thankful

I just took a look at Boston.com's The Year in Pictures: Part 1 and it really made me stop and think about how lucky we are in this country.  Incredibly, incredibly lucky.  We have this tendency to focus on what's wrong and all the small shenanigans at play.  Sure, the concerns the citizens of this country have are very important.  I myself, get caught up and overemotional about them too.  However, looking through these photos, I can't help but realize how safe, secure, and okay everything really is in this country.  Does that mean we won't get there, of course not but we aren't there yet.  There are so many people who live everyday in legitimate fear (not the stupid irrational fear that I fear at times).  Their fear is real.  They and their loved ones could be killed or harmed any moment.

Sure I understand the Occupy Wallstreet movement and many other "issues" we have in this country.  Like I said before, we have some serious, serious flaws.  I wish we could totally restructure the system and try again but I don't live in fear that a bomb could blow up next to me, that I won't get shot in the head during a protest, that I might not have a warm, home to return to at the end of the day.  It saddens me.  I don't get it. I don't understand what it must be like to live in a society like that.  The United States got their most recent glimpse of the terror on September 11, 2001.  There are so many other countries where it feels like that everyday and I can't imagine that.

I'll be honest.  On big days like New Year's Eve and 4th of July,  I do quietly get nervous that something terrible could happen.  I then remember that September 11th wasn't a special day.  It was an ordinary day just like any other but you can't live in fear like that.  I don't know.  Normally, I don't look at pictures like this but when I do I just wish I had the power to make things right.  Unfortunately, wishing for world peace is something that is more than a cliche.  It's impossible.  All I can do is give them my thoughts and just remember how incredibly, incredibly lucky I am that I was born in this country to my family.   Really, I feel like the luckiest woman in the world right now.