Thanks for Nothing

Of all the things I have to be thankful for, I am most thankful for the things I didn’t get. In the 1940s and 1950s, I am most thankful that I did not get polio. This was an epidemic during which thousands of youngsters were afflicted with the crippling killer disease, but I was spared.

Thanks for nothing.

As a young girl, I was keenly aware that I was being brought up in a Christian home with both parents living happily under the same roof, but many children in my neighborhood had only a mother, a grandmother, or an aunt in the home. Quite often there was no father. I was not given a single-parent home.

Thanks for nothing.

Many people have homes that are strategically located under bridges, in abandoned cars, or in discarded refrigerator boxes. Their only means of transportation is an old decrepit grocery cart and a pair of worn out shoes. Their food comes from the leftovers of others, a nearby dumpster, or maybe, a local soup kitchen. They may get the opportunity to come in from the cold and the rain if they can find a shelter that is not crowded. I never got a chance to experience these aspects of life.

Thanks for nothing.

I have some friends whose sons and daughters are hooked on drugs and some are even in prison. Some of these friends have had to take on the responsibility of rearing their grandchildren because of these conditions. One friend told me of her son who had tried to kill her in order to get money for his drug habit. And some have told tales of horror in which their grandchildren have been prostituted, starved, and beaten. I have never been given this cross to bear.

Thanks for nothing.

After seventeen years at my job, I was transferred to a school on the other side of town. I wondered how that could happen to me. Then I heard that some people would not have jobs for the upcoming school year. I wondered how I would feel if that had been the case for me. I didn’t lose my job, and I found myself instead in a school that I liked much better than my old one.

Thanks for nothing.

I have a coworker whose daughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. She recently received a bone marrow transplant, but even with the transplant she is not doing well. It would appear that she most likely will leave her children motherless. I had my mother for many years and as of this writing, my children and grandchildren are not motherless. We have not begun to face a tragedy of this proportion.

Thanks for nothing.

When I think of all the things I have prayed for over the years and didn’t get; when I remember all the blessings I received and did not deserve; when I think of all I wanted but did not need; when I look back over my life and see all the things I have to be thankful for, I am most thankful for the things I did not get.

Thanks for nothing.

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Laura Smith is a guidance counselor at Berea Middle School in Berea, South Carolina. She is the mother of two sons and grandmother of three little girls.