Louis CK makes me thinky

Louis CK on how we are surrounded by awesome and don’t even notice (warning: NSFW language, unless you work someplace very relaxed and hep):

So, so true. And I wish I could say that I am one of those people that, of course, ya know, it ain’t about me.

BUT IT IS.

Damn it.

Right here is the problem with my country. We have everything, frickin’ everyhing, and it’s not good enough. We live in an age in which we live longer, and healthier, lives than ever, and we freak out and worry and complain about how unhealthy and horrible the modern world is. We have marvelous toys, inventions of passionate and talented humans, and we complain that they don’t shave off a few more nanoseconds of work. We have marvelous toys and games, and complain bitterly because sometimes they break down. It’s like we’re petulant children, unable to enjoy what we have, always wanting the next thing, and unable to accept when things don’t go exactly our way.

And I’m just as guilty as everyone. So a late New Years resolution: I’m going to try to enjoy the wonders of the world, and complain about the mostly trivial annoyances less often (Read: I’m going to try as hard as I can to do this, and probably fail more than a little). I’m going to try to appreciate the marvels we are surrounded with, and the people who make them possible. Gratitude is good. Not the mushy, pointless kind of religion, where all the gratitude is placed on the nonexistent, and the actual benefactors ignored (how many graces before meals ever say, “hey, thanks, farmers!”?). I mean the concrete, wow, a whole bunch of talented people made my computer possible, and all the cool things it does, and maybe I can remember to acknowledge how cool that is before I start bitching about how, say, Chrome and Flash have started behaving funky on a few websites. Because really, the benefits I get from these things far outweighs the few annoyances that arrive from the natural tendency of the world to fail to be perfect.

Or, to put it another way, I know damn well that I am not perfect, nor do I particularly want to be, and in fact would argue that “perfect” is an incoherent concept born of simplistic ideologies. So I’m not really entitled to other people’s perfection, right? Maybe I can just be thankful for all the good things that come into this world because there are so many crazy talented, hardworking folk out there.