During Thanksgiving, it is impossible to avoid answering the question, “What are you thankful for?”. Usually, it is easy to answer this question. Even in the darkest, most sorrow-filled times of life, there are small things to be thankful for.
Despite our moments of thanksgiving, though, we grumbly return to our regular lives and forget all that we have said. While it is easy to come up with lists of what we are thankful for, it is difficult to muster a spirit of thanksgiving in all circumstances. So then, is it possible to always be thankful? My initial answer is no. We are fallible humans meaning that our current circumstances can overtake us, and we can lose perspective. Yet, while it is an impossible feat, we can try.
How can we try to be thankful in all circumstances, though? I think we can start with the basics: we can be thankful to be alive in the first place. We must contemplate what it means to be alive at this very moment. To be alive right now, it means that you are part of a miracle. Dr. Ali Binazir, a Fortune 100 company consultant, calculated the chances that you are alive right now. The infographic below displays the chains of events that he thought through. His conclusion was that the “probability of you existing at all comes out to 1 in 102685000.
You are a miracle.
The fact that a specific egg and sperm made you is practically zero. Despite the odds, you are here, and you have lived. You have seen the sun rise and set, taken a breath of fresh air, and met the people you love. Life is something worth celebrating and something worth being thankful for. More specifically, you are unique, and your life is worth living.
So then, what can we say about everyone else? Those unborn and the living? Each person is a miracle. Should these miracles be put to waste? No, let us cherish each life, celebrate each life, and be thankful that each person is here now and that more miracles are to come.
Andrea Carballo
NHS ’21
RTL Flyering Chair
Georgetown Right to Life 