Dear Universe.
Happy Thanksgiving. I am truly thankful, and here is a partial list of my reasons:
1. I won the lottery. No, not the one at the corner store. I mean being born at this time in history in the US and to parents who cared deeply about their children and the future and had the wherewithal to give me a good start.
2. My health. As a physician for the last 35 years, I am all too well aware of how tragic and undeserved ill-health can be.
3. My family. A wife who has trained me well for more than four decades, and tolerated those parts that cannot be trained. Two children to whom I am honored to be related, from whom I learn constantly, and of whom I am unreasonably proud. To say nothing of their life partners and the grandchildren they have bestowed upon my wife and I.
4. My career in medicine, and especially my patients. The collaborative work and the trusting relationships make it fun to go to work every day.
5. Ignorance and curiosity. It is so wonderful to not know the answers, to be able daily to discover the future, and to know that the list of new things to learn is self-propagating and therefore inexhaustible.
Thank you, universe.
Peter Elias