Surviving The Fall, 58

Did you wake up, this morning Gentle Reader? Are you breathing? When you opened the curtains or pulled up the blind and looked out the window, was everything more or less the way you left it yesterday? Do you have food in your fridge for breakfast? If the answer to each of these questions is yes, then you are doing okay. Do you have something to do today? People to see? A job to go to? Classes to attend? Employment to seek? Are there people for you to contact or respond to by phone, email or social media? Then you're still doing okay. Are there things today that you can do that you are going to find downright enjoyable? (drugs and booze don't count here) Do you get to be active? Going for a walk, a run, or a bike ride? Do you get to do this in an area that you like, find beautiful, interesting and peaceful? Do you have family? A spouse to wake up with, kids to pack off to school, parents to visit, an extended family? Friends? People who want to see you, and whom you want to see? Then you are doing really well. Do you find it easy to laugh, or at least to smile. When you step outside are you aware of the others around you? Does the person walking in front of you on the sidewalk have existence to you? The homeless person sleeping on the sidewalk? The person next to you on the bus? In the other car? Can you dare to say good morning to a complete stranger? Or if you are greeted by a stranger, how are you going to respond? Are you able to pull yourself away long enough from your phone or your listening device to actually see the people around you? Then you are doing even better. Do you notice nature? Is there a tree you particularly like to walk by every day, perhaps even to pat and say hi to (when no one is looking, of course?). Do you notice the birds? Squirrels? /will you dare to stop and pet a friendly cat or dog in your way? Then you are doing better than average. Are you able to get angry about the social and economic inequality that we all have to live with, and the doofuses who run our countries and keep threatening to destroy the world as we know it and bring our planet to ruin? Then, you are almost a complete human being. Can you balance gratitude with righteous outrage? Even better. When you return home today, are you going to have food to eat? Very good. A bed to sleep in? Yes! now, being grateful for what you have, and for who you are, and for who you have in your life, can you also dare to be angry? Outraged? That there are people who do not have these same blessings that you have just said yes to? Remember the saying, If you are not angry then you are not paying attention. Be grateful and get angry. If the world is going to change, then it is going to be people like you and me, Gentle Reader who are going to change it. Be grateful, get angry, and do something!