Appreciation Friday — #1 (with poll)

Many of us spend so much time thinking about what we don’t have, what we used to have and don’t have anymore, what we think we’ll never have, what we wish we had. My Appreciation Friday posts are meant to highlight what I do and have had, what is around me, what has entered my personal universe. It’s my way of compelling myself to see and ACKNOWLEDGE the lives and events that can escape my consciousness. Conscious appreciation. Looking for what I can be grateful for.

THIS WEEK (January 1-6):

I heard a segment of “The Brian Lehrer Show” about student debt on my local NPR station. So many people are laboring under the weight of student debt as high as $170,000, more than what it was when they graduated. I am grateful that I’ve never had student debt, especially now that I am what they call the long-term unemployed (for now, that is). I attained my first degree with the aid of tuition reimbursement (what a dinosaur, now!) from a company for which I worked. I received my second degree with the support of this same company plus fellowships from the university. I appreciate ABC News and Columbia University School of the Arts for excepting me of student debt. I appreciate being able to manifest what I needed when I needed it.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. (John F. Kennedy)