Today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S. It’s a day we sit around a table laden with food and tell everyone what we are thankful for in our lives. Today I will be with family but we will be sitting down around tables pitched under large tents in a parking lot, surrounded by veterans waiting for their turn at our VA Hospital. Many are homeless, temporarily as they go through whatever course of treatment has brought them to our town, some permanently as they make their home in shelters here.
I will give silent thanks for the people of my town. The people who grew a gesture of caring and sharing from cooking one last Thanksgiving dinner in the home of an elderly couple who had been in our neighborhood for decades into the sit down dinner for dozens of people just passing through. The warmth and level of true caring in my town warms my heart. Everyday there are tiny reminders of just how wonderful people can be, and how willing they are to share what they have with others. Time, knowledge, material things, even just a conversation over a cup of coffee.
Then I look at what I do everyday. And how good I feel as I sit down to my keyboard every morning. I have friends from all over the world. People I care about, people I listen to as they share the stories of their lives. People I celebrate with as they grow their talents, becoming better writers, better photographers, branching out to savor life and take new paths they never thought would be open to them.
This is the true power of the blockchain. This community of people from every corner of the earth, from every walk of life, with every dream and hope and level of knowledge and talent imaginable. This community of world citizens that comes together to meet challenges and overcome them.
In my short time here on the blockchain I’ve seen many things - apps that handle all sorts of things from the mundane to the complex, charitable projects that help people from every corner of the world with everything from seed money for a new business that can mean true financial independence for a person, a family or an entire village. Clothes, and desks, and supplies for kids so they can go to school and so much more.
Here on the blockchain, if there is a bump in the road, blockchain residents get together and simply smooth it out. They don’t ask “why?”, they ask “why not?” and then go ahead and do what was thought to be the impossible without concern for how things “used to be done”.
Innovation is the watchword of the blockchain, and sharing thoughts, ideas and self is the vehicle that makes the innovation possible.
Because of the open exchange of ideas and knowledge that takes place on the blockchain, free from government or big corp interference, I am watching the world move forward at breakneck speed. I have a front row seat to the magnificent results of what mankind can do when they are set free. Free to think, free to do, free to share.
So this Thanksgiving, as I sit at the table and listen to those words of thanks from everyone else, I will only mention one thing I am thankful for - the endless possibilities of the Blockchain and the people who have found a home on it. Those seated around me will look puzzled, and I won’t explain, I can’t explain to anyone who has not experienced the vibrant, exciting world of blockchain technology what it truly means. Or how it will affect and touch the lives of everyone, even those who know nothing about it.
But I am so very thankful for each and every one of you, and for the opportunity to be a part of this incredible revolution.
Happy Thanksgiving!