Gratitude Monday: May Day

It’s Gratitude Monday and it’s International Workers Day and it’s May Day.

So I’m grateful for Spring in Northern Virginia. For drifts of azaleas and clouds of dogwood. For the explosions of leaves on trees and eruptions of hostas through the mulch.

(I’m not so grateful for allergies and a bad hair day that will last through mid-September, tbh, but that’s the price I pay for the change in seasons.)

This year I’m also grateful for the anticipation of putting out tomato plants and a summer of suppers alternating between caprese salads and poached chicken breasts with tomato mayonnaise, with glasses of Pinot Gris or Prosecco to sip. Because there is nothing in this world like tomatoes you bring into the kitchen still warm from the vine.

I’m also grateful for workers of every stripe—Metro drivers, baristas, call center representatives, trash guys, help desk techs, grocery shelf stockers, factory workers, pharmacists—all of them. This year I’m also keeping in my thoughts journalists, editors and publishers; judges all up and down the line; teachers and teacher aides; ACLU lawyers; federal employees; Congressional staff-who-answer-phones (sorry, guys, I know you’re on the front line of a war you probably never saw coming; wars are like that) and the men and women of our armed services.

(The Kleptocrat, his Gauleiters and Congressmorons too spineless to #doyourjob—not so much. For the precise reason that they are not fulfilling the fundamental part of their oath of office, which is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.)

Back in the last century the skipper of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower used to close his morning announcement by saying, “Thanks for coming to work today.” Well, it was a little dopy, because it’s not like anyone aboard ship had any choice in the matter. But we all need to consider what our day would be like if someone didn’t do their job, and we all like to be appreciated for doing our job.

May Day/International Workers Day has traditionally been a time for the laboring classes to march, and it’s been a day for bloodshed, as left- and right-wing extremists fought in the streets, both here and abroad. I’m hoping we won’t see that kind of thing today, although given the kind of organized provocation by supporters of the Kleptocrat at protests and marches recently, I know this is wishful thinking.

Still—this isn’t about Big Movements, this is about small gratitude; my gratitude. So I’m focusing on appreciating the world around me, natural and man-made.