For some reason I get sentimental at the end of the year, and I try to look back in a spirit of appreciation on my blessings and the good experiences I've had that year.

Your parents always told you to appreciate what you have.

Yes, it is important, even when you've got a lousy job you'd like to move on from and lots of responsibilities rest on your shoulders, to practice gratitude.

Or you can be Shailja Patel, a Twitter blue checkmark.

Responding to the point that "we all have the same 24 hours," she writes:

"Use public transport? Your 24 hours are not the same as those of private jet owners.

"Do your own cooking, cleaning, child-raising? Your 24 hours are not the same as those of someone with a full-time domestic staff.

"Stop this nonsense."

Imagine being this person.

In what way are her observations even slightly helpful?

How many people own private jets? Not nearly enough for her alleged point to matter. How many people employ a full-time domestic staff? Practically no one. What is the point of any of this, other than envy?

One person in a million is able to wring more out of his 24 hours than I am. So %#$@& what?

You're not one bad harvest away from starvation. You don't need to have dental work done without novocaine. You have running water, heat and air conditioning, an ability to communicate your every thought to the entire world, access to a huge library of the greatest books and works of art, transportation that would have seemed out of science fiction to most of the human race at one time, and a heck of a lot more.

Yes, a relative handful of people have private jets and are even more comfortable than you are. If you dwell on this for more than three seconds, you are a loser.

Per capita income in the developed world has increased by approximately a factor of 30 over the past two centuries. Maybe not fast enough for some people, but fast enough that we should be grateful rather than furious. And over the past decade extreme poverty fell below 10 percent for the first time ever.

We should appreciate this.

One other thing I'm doing as the year draws to a close, apart from appreciating things, is this:

Over on my other email list I let everyone know that as 2019 comes to a close I'm going to begin retiring some of the bonuses I've given away in the past. One of those bonuses is my video of public speaking tips: what to do and (more importantly, perhaps) what not to do.

Plus my video on how I make and distribute my eBooks, and a bunch of other bonuses as well.

If you'd like those, grab before the timer runs out:
 

http://www.tomwoods.com/endofyearthing

Tom Woods