Thankful Thursday is a bit harder than usual today

I'm still hearing every time I turn on the radio, the TV or the computer and read the newspaper about how incredibly deep in the economic shit we as a country are. Every day brings new announcements of companies cutting workers loose in desperate attempts to remain solvent; business seems to have slowed again at my employer as the work coming through prepress trickles to nothing; and the government's approach to stimulus legislation is apparently equivalent to seating a bunch of monkeys at typewriters and praying like hell that one of them comes up with Hamlet II. Some of my friends are saying I shouldn't even keep money in a bank any longer, and should exchange it for...what? Gold coins? Euros? Magic beans? And meanwhile, I still have several thousand dollars of debt; not nearly as much as some people, I know, but still eating away at my peace of mind. I worry that one day soon I may be hunkering down with hordes of the out-of-work, homeless and starving around barrel fires in the street and dreaming of the good old days when we still had a functioning economy and banking system.

So as I wait for the coming socioeconomic collapse, since I don't have the cash to stow stocks of canned goods and firearms, I try to find some things to be thankful for.

• That I do have a roof over my head, food and clothing and a decent, reasonably secure job...for now.
• That I have friends in significant number who care about my well-being. (Some of them actually seem to like me, for some reason; go figure.)
• That I have a partner who loves me and puts up with my weirdness and occasional crappy behavior.
• That I live in a free country which, for all its warts and flaws, is still (for now, anyhow) the best place on Earth to be.
• That I have music and art and laughter and books and chocolate in my life (even if anxiety and depression make it harder to enjoy them than usual).
• Sunny weather and gradually warming temperatures as we head into spring.
• That I have health insurance which is helping pay for at least some of the cost of ongoing treatment.
• That I don't have to work flipping burgers or digging ditches...yet.

How about you? Is the constant drumbeat of bad fiscal news making you think about digging out your passport or moving back in with the 'rents? Or do you have things to be thankful for today?

A South Boston firefighter and the child he saved are reunited four decades later

This came from my "friends of my friends" list, and I thank celticmom1967 for posting a link to it. Most of my regular readers will know by now that my father, younger brother and godson (little bro's oldest) are all firefighters (or will be, once Godson gets through the academy this spring). Everybody knows that firefighters save lots of lives...but this particular story shows that the instinct to help, the courage to risk death or injury, and the compassion and professionalism that mark a true firefighter can win out over even the worst of human prejudices.

In 1968, at the height of the civil-rights struggles the African-American community was waging and the racial tensions that roiled US society from Selma to Watts, a white South Boston firefighter rescued a black baby from a fire in a housing project. If you know anything about Southie, you know what it means for someone from that neighborhood, in that time, to do something like this for a dark-skinned family. It got his picture in the local paper, which you can see here.

The firefighter went on to serve three more decades in the department and retire, and the child grew up to become a mother herself. And in all that time, the two still had had no further contact...until yesterday, when the woman finally found her savior to say an extremely belated "thank you."

As part of a family of smoke-eaters and as a son of the deep South, it does my heart more good than I can express to read a story like this...and it makes me even more proud of Daddy, Doug and Dayne.