Pretty Freaking Awesome

I mentioned last week that I re-stained our back deck recently. What I failed to mention was that I started it at noon on a cloudless day. The temperature wasn’t too bad, but the deck is on the south side of our house with no shade whatsoever.

In other words, the chances of getting burned were pretty high. I should also mention that I’m paler than your average vampire.

But I was prepared. We bought sunscreen recently and I applied and re-applied like a smart person and saved myself from the worst of it. Live and learn.

Which leads me to my point. I was marveling at the fact that I didn’t turn into a lobster when I realized how incredibly awesome it is to be alive now. I mean we have freaking sunscreen in a bottle.

Think about that…

Forget all the technological advances we currently enjoy. We are able to protect our skin by spraying on a fine mist or rubbing in a lotion, whichever you prefer. I know, I know in the grand scheme of things this is probably pretty low on the importance scale, but if you’ve ever had a sunburn you probably feel the same way I do.

But let’s talk about technology for a minute. If you’re 40 something like me then you remember the days when you had to be at home to get a phone call. There was no such thing as the internet. And you actually had to take a trip to see someone while you talked with them. There was no video chat.

Like I said, pretty freaking awesome to be alive right now.

Then there’s the advancements in medicine. We here in the U.S. can reasonably expect to live to 80 with a decent chance of a high quality of life. It wasn’t all that long ago when that wasn’t the case – anywhere. Hell, there was a good chance people wouldn’t live to see adulthood.

And, yet, we forget. We forget the hard-fought, daily battles of those who lived before us. We forget the sacrifice, the suffering of those who made everything we have now possible. We forget it is their knowledge, their experience that laid the foundation for our ‘breakthroughs’.

But, perhaps, even worse than that, we take for granted everything we have now. Every convenience. Every marvel. That would never have been possible without people in the past giving, sharing their time, knowledge, expertise.

Then on the flip side we selfishly hoard, usually out of fear, what we know, have instead of sharing it so that future generations can build on it. Everyone has something to contribute, whether we know it or not, even if it’s on a small scale or stage.

So let’s take a minute today to appreciate the call, text, post we can make while we’re out and about. Or the blog we can write on the computer that fits on our lap. Or the relative, friend we can see who lives half-way across the world without leaving our home.

I think we can all agree that we live in incredibly awesome times.