1.
nellorat2.
womzilla3. Some of the smartest, nicest, most interesting friends & acquaintances in the world, specifically including those belonging to my dreamwidth/livejournal and Facebook reading lists, my electronic and postal mailing lists, and the two apas I am still in.
4. My body. It’s an evolved animal, the product of millions of years of fighting, breeding, and dying, with all the problems that would suggest, but as far as we know, the human body is the only vehicle mind has. (It's a ride.) I’m thankful for mine in particular because it’s a strong one. It has survived 75+ years of as little exercise and nutritional correctness as I could get away with giving it, and now requires only moderate amounts of both. It has survived much abuse of assorted substances (and the only one of those I wouldn’t do over again is tobacco) and now survives without them.
5. My nation. Like my body, not the ideal place to inhabit, but good as actually existing ones go. My predecessors stole a good land from the natives and gave it good laws, including a constitution that still does much to protect us. When my own forebears came here much later, the immigration laws were tougher, and there were opportunities for people like them, who combined ability with pigmentational correctness, and they thereby flourished.
6. All other minds, past and present: those who created computers to expand my mind and a Net to join it to others, medicines that allow me to survive the previously fatal weaknesses of my body, and words and pictures that have enriched my thoughts, and all those I have forgotten or taken for granted.