It's Amazing The Things We Take For Granted

A tub similar to what I bathed in as a child
when visiting my grandmother in Virginia

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you Critical Thinker readers out there! If you recall in my last post (Sunday, November 24, 2013), I began it by sharing with you how I was at that time waiting for the plumber to come and repair or replace my hot water heater that had suddenly sprung a leak. Well indeed the plumber did come and $750 later, the hot water heater was replaced and I had hot water once again. 

This week was Thanksgiving and I thought back to last weekend and about how everyone in the house was thrown off a bit by not being able to just turn on the faucet and receive hot water. We had to boil water in several pots in order to bathe, wash dishes, etc. etc. We had become so accustomed to just being able to turn the faucet to the right or to the left and the water would just flow either hot or cold depending on our need. What seemed to us to be disastrous was in reality a mere inconvenience for a couple of nights. I shared with my family how there are countries who do not have running water at all let alone hot water. I also shared with them how when I was a child and would visit my grandmother's house in South Boston, Virginia (Halifax County), that she did not have running water in her house and we had to boil water and take a bath in a metal tub like the one pictured above and to the left. We boiled cold water from the pump/well that was located outside of the house and that the bathroom was an out house located several yards down the hill away from the house.  

As I looked upon our hot water heater dilemma, I then thought about how many other things we just take for granted until they do not work as expected or are gone. There is that old cliche that "You don't miss your water until your well runs dry,"(no pun intended) and in some respects that is very true in terms of us taking things for granted. As you are reading this, think of some of the things we take for granted such as our car starting when we turn the key; our computers booting up when we press the power button; our heating systems kicking in when the thermostat reaches a certain low temperature; the lights illuminating just by the flicking of a switch; the refrigerator keeping our food and beverages cold; our online connections buffering at the speed of light or faster; and the list goes on and on. Some may say we even take God for granted. I was speaking with someone this morning and when I asked her about her Thanksgiving, she responded that it was quiet, but she also shared with me that when she was talking to her brother he said to her that he had nothing to be thankful for......nothing. My response to her was, he is breathing isn't he? He awakened on Thanksgiving morning, didn't he?  She agreed and went on to share that after her conversation with him that she did not go to his house on Thanksgiving. She said she did not want to be around that negativity particularly on Thanksgiving. Speaking of breathing, we even take that for granted. We take for granted that we are going to wake up each morning when we lay down to sleep at night. My point of this post is to bring to our consciousness just how much we have to be thankful for and if you don't believe me, let the proverbial "well run dry" and see just how much you miss what you were taking for granted. Something to critically think about and I invite you to join the conversation by placing your commentary in the comment section of the blog and follow The Critical Thinker on Twitter @thinkcritical01 and on Tumblr at thecriticalthinker01.tumblr.com.