Reflections ►
Thanksgiving
And The Lost Art of Gratitude by Dolores Halbin , contributing writer
This month , we celebrate our country ’ s first National holiday , Thanksgiving , and the often-lost art of gratitude . Today , I am the most grateful that people can change — and for music , I would die without music . However , the ability to say “ whoops ! I was wrong !” Well , that is a priceless trait of true humanity , and without a lot more of it , we will not survive .
I live gritty and frustrated most days . I cut my nursing teeth in Cardiac Critical Care . Critical care nursing is measured inseconds because when you have a heart attack and become a patient , we only have seconds , minutes at best , to save your life . To accomplish this efficiently , we use outcome-based algorithms . When we find a better way to save your life , we don ’ t wait ; we implement a new algorithm and tear up the old one .
By now , we should have a whole book of algorithms for cannabis medicine .
Unlabeling
There are roughly 6,500 languages in the world , and an apple is an apple , and a drug is a drug in all 6,500 of them . Definitions may stay the same , but the longer we live , the more words become re-branded with our own experiences . All this individual interpretation can make a base agreement on the meanings of a word challenging . Some labels , like wine bottle labels , soak right off . Others , like the lithium battery warning on an Amazon box , will never come off . These past eight decades of our plant being bastardized with the label of a drug , well , that ’ s a dang hard one to “ get shed of ,” as my grandma used to say .
Are We Ants ?
A few weeks ago , the CBS Sunday Morning show aired a special called “ Small Wonders : What Ants Can Teach Us .”
One of my favorite journalists , Faith Salie , explored ants in the Belizean rainforest with biologist and ant-enthusiast Mark Moffett . There ’ s a YouTube video of the special .
“ Ants are a lot like people ,” the biologist told the young journalist . “ They make assembly lines , highways , and underground cities . There are soldier ants , nurses , sanitation specialists , and construction worker ants . There is even a suicide bomber ant that will blow itself up , spreading toxic yellow goo on whatever is next to it .”
In response to these human types of behaviors , Faith made the statement , “ So they must be pretty smart , right ?”
Nope , the biologist answered . Surprised , she responded , “ I wasn ’ t expecting you to say that .”
“ Most ants simply ‘ follow the crowd ;’ the more ants follow a trail , the stronger the trail ’ s scent is , the more likely more ants will follow ,” Moffitt explained . In other words , the trails walked repeatedly become the trails others are most willing to walk .
Researchers proved this among humans in 2019-2020 . The social justice causes that had the most social media coverage were the causes that experienced the most movement . The lesson learned is to repeat , repeat , and repeat some more .
Power of One
What makes us different from ants , I think , is that an individual can change their path , whether the crowd follows or not , which makes us each very powerful , especially if the individual is in a leadership position . On that same CBS show , journalist Leslie Stahl interviewed a prominent politician who had come out in the past decade against LGBTQ rights . When asked about her historical stance on gay people , she said , “ I was wrong . I was wrong . I was very , very wrong .”
Stahl was physically taken aback , and for the second time in one show , a journalist said , “ Wow , I wasn ’ t expecting you to say that .” She went on to say , “ People don ’ t admit they are wrong very often .”
We need our leaders to be willing to admit they were wrong and to change accordingly .
Amazing Grace
I once was lost , but now I am found Was blind , but now I see ... ~ by John Newton
In my observations , people change their minds by one of two paths : education or a dramatic , a . k . a ., spiritual experience . John Newton was a slave trader who had the latter on a trip across the Atlantic Ocean in 1748 . Newton found himself down on his knees , making promises to God as a monstrous storm threatened to sink his slave ship . Post conversion , it took Newton a long time to realize the slave trade and his newfound Christianity were incompatible . Newton gave up the slave trade and became an abolitionist preacher . In 1752 , almost seven years after he wrote the song the morning after the nearly doomed voyage , he sang Amazing Grace to his new congregation . His slow conversion to Social Justice was a solid one , and he brought us a song that has endured and inspired us for centuries .
Conversion by Education
July of 2016 , I gathered signatures in Monett , MO . It took four hours that first day to go to every business on Broadway . I came home sweaty and exhausted with only two signatures . The following week , I was contacted by the local paper for a story on Amendment 2 . The young reporter who