I am proud to say that I feel that I live in the greatest country in the world. Here, in the USA, we live in a free society where I can be whatever I want to be. I am a Black American male who grew up in the 1960”s. I am not saying that this country is the place of perfection. I can remember clearly when the civil rights movement was on the front of every newspaper in the country. My dad tells stories of racism while he was living in the south that would make anyone’s hair stand up on their heads. I can remember my own experiences of racism.

Maybe I’m a little naive or maybe I’m a little too positive, but I feel that this type of negative thinking is behind us. I feel that I’m more able to do what I want to do than at any other time in history.

We live in an electronic age where I can have all the information about the world in the palm of my hand on my phone. I am not limited to what I can do with my phone. I can talk. I can text. I even have two books in my phone. This way I can read my favorite authors without having to be weighted down.     I can find out about the starvation that’s going on in Africa and I can read about the political struggles in the Far East. I have over 20,000 followers on Twitter and I think that most of them are mainly interested in what I have to say as I am interested in what the over 20,000 people I’m following are saying. We live in a country that offers us many privileges.  I am very grateful that I live here.

As a positive parent I feel it is my job to get my kids to experience this gratitude.  My kids like a lot of kids have more junk than they know what to do with. They have all the latest electronic games. They enjoy the benefits of cable television. The bottom line is that these kids have all that they need.

The problem comes when they take for granted all that they have and it can become very easy to look down one’s nose at those who are not so fortunate. Whenever we are together, I deliberately point out those who may not be so lucky. My dad always said that it is a hairline between being here and there.  I bring that up with my kids because I feel that they need to be grateful. I need them to understand that nothing in life is a given. They should understand that at any given time one event could put them in that same position as “that” person.

With this electronic age the world has become very small.  As a kid the only time we would learn about a different part of the world or even a different part of the country, would be in history class or by reading our encyclopedias. There’s a lost word.  I’ll bet your salary (I’m keeping mine) that most kids don’t know what an encyclopedia is. With utube and CNN there is a reason why they would know about it and it has become my job to use this medium to point out to my kids how lucky they are. I can show them the millions of kids who have no food to eat and who have no place to sleep. I can also show them all the kids who are sold into slavery and are abused as sex objects. These things go on both here and abroad.

The bottom line is that I want my kids not to take life for granted. For whatever reason they are blessed and I need them to have some gratitude about the position they are in.

Please leave me a comment. I would love to read about your thoughts on gratitude.

I LOVE BEING A DAD!!