I Don’t Feel Like Being Thankful
Do you ever feel like you have two personalities? One that is pretty upbeat and positive, the other cynical and negative? I do. Especially when the holidays approach.
Part of me is appreciative for what I have: my family and friends, our health, our home. And this time of year, the ability to have time off of work, spend time with loved ones and eat piles of delicious food. I know a lot of people don’t have that.
But the other voice always sneaks in. Reminding me of everything I don’t have. More specifically, the many things that other people have that I don’t. Not to mention all of the awfulness in the world today. Horrible things in the news pretty much every day.
“You re being told you should give thanks,” the voice says. “But things are terrible right now. You want to give thanks for that??”
Then my positive voice reminds me of that story from a few years ago.
In early 2016 a man in upstate New York was approaching kidney failure.
A friend of his offered to go through the screening process to donate one of his kidneys. The man’s sister did the same. They both shared his blood type so it looked promising that one of them could be a match.
The man’s wife wanted to be his donor but couldn’t because she was a different blood type. However, she found out that she could be part of a paired exchange, where she donated to a recipient that she matched, and another donor who was matched with her husband donated to him.
At the same time, a man in New Jersey was considering becoming an altruistic kidney donor. He had thought about it off and on since he had had life-saving surgery a few years earlier. He went through the screening process and was put into the transplant database as a potential donor.
His kidney turned out to be a perfect match for the man in New York.
But not only was his kidney a perfect match, so was the timing. He didn’t do this in the spring of 2015 or 2017, but the spring of 2016, at the exact same time the New York man needed a kidney.
Along with 3 others in the kidney swap, they all had successful surgery in June of 2016. The New York man has been in great health ever since.
This story is a good reminder to me that there is goodness and kindness and generosity in the world.
And a reminder that I have a lot to be thankful for. Because, that guy in the story who got all those offers of help from people close to him, and a perfect-match kidney from a complete stranger? That would be me.
I’m putting away the negative voice for now. I have a thing or two to give thanks for.
