Sometimes it doesn’t take much to make one realize what they have to be grateful for. This year has been one of those years that makes me more grateful than usual.

With Thanksgiving approaching, I’ve been thinking about the people in my life and what they mean to me and my life in general: where I’ve been, what I’m doing and where I’m going.

The most mysterious thing about life is that nobody knows how long it will last. As the old saying goes: “live life to its fullest”. I’ve tried to do that the best way I can.

I’m grateful for what I have. Not just personal possessions, but the people in my life, the love that we have and the health that I have. There is nothing more to be grateful for than that.

Why is it this time of year people always question themselves on when they should begin to decorate for the holidays?

“I want to put my Christmas tree up. But is it too early?”

I didn’t know there was a law that said you couldn’t put it up before a certain time. Shit, who says you couldn’t keep it up all year? Why question it?

“We shouldn’t put the Christmas lights up until after Halloween.”

Why? Because the colder it gets the more fun it is to freeze while stringing lights on your gutters? Shit, put them up in July. Better yet, just keep them up all year.

“I really shouldn’t start my Christmas shopping until after Thanksgiving.”

Yeah, so you can get the scraps. The best stuff is on the shelves long before Labor Day. Better yet, shop all year round. It will help you finish faster. Chances are you’ll be done before Thanksgiving.

“Is it too early to listen to Christmas music? Too early for Christmas movies?”

Dumbest questions ever. It’s NEVER too early! Shit, I listen and watch all year long! I know the stations that play music all year long. And you always have CDs and DVDs. I have a tradition of watching “It’s A Wonderful Life” on Independence Day. It’s never too early for George Bailey or Clarence.

When it comes to the holidays, don’t pay attention to the ones who bitch and moan when the stores are decorating after Halloween. They’re the ones who wouldn’t want to see anything Christmas until December 24th. And even then it would be too soon.

If putting up the tree in July and listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies year round makes you happy, then do it! Wear that funky Christmas T-shirt on Memorial Day if it makes you happy.

That’s what matters most.

As time has gone on, it does seem more and more apparent that the COVID-19 vaccines do aid in lessening the cases of the virus as well as lessening the effects of the virus, should you be one of the thousands of people becoming a breakthrough case.

That information aside, choosing to get the vaccine is still that: a choice. Just as it is a choice to get any other vaccination. Because getting vaccinated is a person’s choice, it is not something that should be mandated by a work place. Work places don’t mandate the flu shot for employees. They don’t mandate the vaccine for measles. Shit, many don’t even mandate drug testing. The vaccine for COVID-19 shouldn’t be any different.

I know many will argue about the severity of COVID versus the flu. They may have a point. But I will tell them about 2003, when I worked at an office of 500 employees. That’s the year the flu ran rampant through our office from January until April. It didn’t matter if you were vaccinated or not. I was and I got the flu so bad I was out of work for three weeks.

We all know COVID is a virus with a mind of its own. You could have a fully vaccinated office and you would still end up with COVID cases. So, yes, you still protect yourself but it’s really only as good as wearing a band-aid. Most of us know this by now.

So, yes, I can see why Biden’s mandate decision has been temporarily halted. Because how can you demand someone to do something that is really their choice? It’s almost as bad as Texas telling women they no longer have a choice to have an abortion. You’re pregnant and you don’t want the baby? Too bad. You work at company XYZ and there’s a crazy virus floating all over the world and we all wear facemasks day-in-and-day-out to protect ourselves but there’s also this vaccine that may or may not keep you from getting the virus. But because you work at company XYZ and the President is forcing us to have our employees vaccinated, you have to be vaccinated. Just, no.

People like choices. McDonald’s or Burger King? Chevy or Ford? Yale or Harvard? Patriots or Jets? (wait, that’s a choice?) If you take away their ability to choose something, you may as well take away their ability to breathe.

Not all choices are the best choices. Choosing to drink and drive? Bad. Choosing to rob a bank? Not good. Choosing to cheer on the Jets? To each their own. Choosing to not wear a facemask, whether required or not? Not the best choice. Choosing to not get vaccinated, when there’s a good chance it could prevent you from getting really sick if you got the virus? Again, not the best choice. But still, a choice. And one every person should be able to make on their own.

Today is World Mental Health Day.

Today let’s not forget that anyone, at any time, may have their mental health affected. And they should not be treated any differently by any medical professional than someone who is in the ER because of a broken foot.

It is sad to realize, and experience with your own eyes, a patient in the ER, who, originally there for a medical reason that allegedly the “professionals” cannot find a cause of, be brushed off as it being “mental” simply because the person indicated they did not feel safe going home because of how their stomach felt. Because they felt if they went home, they would be going back to the ER. Because of how their stomach felt. Not because of how they felt mentally.

And now, because they feel it’s more a “mental” thing, they stick you out in the hallway like a fish to be watched. And you are watched. By people who can barely speak English but can easily sit on their asses all day and “watch” you and the three other people they’re supposed to “watch”. Because you have been labeled as “high risk” or as a “section 12”. These “watchers” wouldn’t know what to do if you actually tried to hurt yourself. They are a joke. Your shoes have been taken away. Your drawstring bag has been taken away. But that charger cord for your phone is okay. Right.

You’re allegedly waiting for a “bed” in some mental health hospital. They’re supposedly doing a “search” for an available bed, but right now all the beds are full. Because there is such a worldwide mental health problem. Christ, you’re lucky to have a mental health counselor and a psychiatrist. Then you’re told that the “team” is thinking that you really need to go back up to the other regular unit you were originally in, when you first were admitted to the hospital, and they can evaluate you medically and mentally there. Because you probably wouldn’t survive a mental health hospital. But they have to wait until next week because they have to discuss it with your psychiatrist who is out of the office right now.

Meanwhile you can’t even watch TV because the TVs are in the rooms where the “medical” ER people are. Because only they deserve to watch TV.

All you deserve is to be “watched” by others.