Gratitude

I do my yearly assessments on my birthday because New Years Eve is trite and there’s always a surcharge for everything.

My birthday has passed and I have a long list of things for which I am grateful and a long list of hills yet to climb.

But this week is The Official Time For Gratitude.

I had almost forgotten.

The first year of a major life change is fraught with all kinds of stuff. It is hard to remember that you not only asked for this but that you like this when there is moving and packing and adjusting involved.

Even good change is change and, well, I am only human.

I am also not an island, no matter how hard I try to be (people confuse me).

Vivian says my first complete sentence was, “I do it MYSELF!” Some things stick.

But I do not do this by myself even when it is only my name and face that you see.

I have marvelous friends and partners. I could thank each and every one but they know that they are my real, treasured people mostly by the fact that I talk to them in the REAL WORLD as opposed to only in the digital. No need to ruin that now. You know who you are and I thank you. Thank you for taking the late night phone calls, the early morning freak-out texts, for judging my first day of school outfits ad nauseum, for reading my thing a million times, for telling me that everything will always be okay.

I spent a decade working very hard but lots of people work very hard. I also got very lucky (but not only lucky; watch yourself) and ended up with the choice to be anywhere in the world. I chose a wonderful home and today I am grateful for my colleagues. They are brilliant and supportive. At least two of them are weirder than I am so I almost always feel normal at work. I am grateful.

My students make getting up in the morning (THE MORNING!) worth it every single time. Thank you.

I would like to thank The Atlantic for a months-long stretch of publishing and Yoni Appelbaum’s yeoman work disguised as generous editorial guidance.

My crew at Dissent magazine has refused to let me feel alone in the professional world and I thank them for that. A special thank you to Sarah Jaffe for being an all-around badass.

The New Press invested in me way before anyone should have done so prudently. Thank you.

The Policy Press and my co-editors (and colleagues) Jessie Daniels and Karen Gregory have forever redeemed group projects for me.

Behind the scenes, folks like Matt Reed and Anil Dash and Audrey Waters and Dorothy Brown and Carol Anderson and Gaye Tuchman and Darrick Hamilton and Sandy Darity and Alan Aja have supported me, my work, and my ability to do that work with confidence.

I complain about the social medias but I still have the most kick ass timeline ever curated. Thank you to the thousands who follow me here and there, the millions who have (according to something someone sent me once) read me, and to the, like, ten of you who send me nice emails.

Happy Thanksgiving.  Genocide aside, a day of gratitude is much appreciated.

Don’t eat the pumpkin.