it's heavy, but important.

Start light.
Ben Stein's column in Sunday's NYTimes opened with perhaps my favorite bit of dialogue in any film, ever. And that's saying a lot. It's the scene in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life when executives are in a meeting and they ask one of the members to comment on the meaning of life.
"Yeah, I've had a team working on this over the past few weeks, and what we've come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One: People aren't wearing enough hats. Two: Matter is energy. In the universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person's soul. However, this 'soul' does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man's unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia."
To which is colleagues reply, "What was that about hats again?"

Right, so Stein goes on to say that being grateful is a good way to find meaning and that, "to be grateful is to get rich not just quickly, but instantly." I like this, and I agree.
But I think that it's too neat and FAR too American to think that that is enough. Just being here is a ridiculously good fortune, and it's not enough just to say you're thankful for it. That's like the 7- minute soul workout and then back to hats.
Nicholas D. Kristoff wrote an incredibly powerful piece in the Op-ed section about the genocide in Chad and Sudan. What's happening there is abhorrent and that the world allows it to continue is inexcusable. An old roommate worked as a photo-journalist in Sudan, and you can't imagine the constant fear with which the people there must live.
I totally and genuinely urge you to help put an end to this by sending a postcard to our ridiculous leader encouraging him to grow a pair and do something. http://www.millionvoicesfordarfur.org/. Another great site to learn about more we can do is http://www.genocideintervention.net/.
People, this is really important.