What's Not

It is not often I think of advice from another to Bob Dylan.  But I read something that was him quoting advice from his dad. “Even if you don't have all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have that you don't want.”
I do like that.  It is one of my touchstones that I try to be thankful for what I do not have.
It really appears there are many seemingly random acts that are very hard to understand.  It look like restraint, or the lack of desire to inflict pain for no reason, is a thing of the past.  People can be going about their everyday activity and experience an unpleasant unexpected event.
Merril and I very much appropriate protection these days.  From our experience his way makes sense and works. That is not to say bad things cannot happen because they do.  What it does mean though is, we are claiming protection from, or an ability to deal with, random acts of evil that seem to be on the rise.
One of my catch cries is “it is not what it has me do, but what it keeps me from.”  Truth be known there are many things I do not have that I do not want.  Eboli, poverty, no friends, no interests, unloved.  All these things I do not have and do not want.
Can I take credit for that?  I think not really.  I do what I know to ward off the things that will destroy me, and the society I belong to does the same thing.  To me that is a good thing.  Yet I know I did not choose to be born where I was.  I will never deny that I am a very small part of a very big picture, but I will always deny random influence.
Whatever the case, I am thankful for much I don’t have and don’t want.