Yup, I’m totally copying Louanne.  She probably thinks I am all out of things to be thankful for so I’m copying her.  Well, sort of.  You see a few weeks ago I was in Texas at a conference and I had a chance to talk to a guy living in Poland.  He’s Polish so that’s not a huge surprise, but anyway… This guy was telling me all about how he was dealing with the after effects of the Russian occupation of Poland.  He and the rest of the nation that is.  The Russian culture (at least the ones that were occupying Poland) as he described it involved drinking much Vodka.  Much, too much, Vodka to the point of many people drinking and driving and the catastrophes that were caused by this drinking and driving were still normal in Polish life.

On a much lighter note they have no paved highways that consistently get you from point A to point B.  I can drive to many parts of the country in my Honda within two days time on nicely paved roads.  He can drive what should only take a couple hours on paved roads in 6-7 hours of time.   On dirt roads.  Uphill both ways.  OK, not really uphill both ways, but its a total pain.

I’m glad that we have the huge amount of freedom, its not the stuff that is reported on often, but its freedom.  We’re facing the problems that countries face when melting pots become too diverse and not enough melting, but we have most of our freedoms in tact and we’re in good shape in many regards.  I’m grateful for being born and raised here.  I just wish I had understood how great freedom was back when I was younger so that I could have paid attention and rejoiced with others in freedom rather than taking the freedom a bit too literally and focused on note passing and stupidness that is associated with immature Jr. high schoolers and such.