I don't know when it happened. There was no email. There was no message. All I know is that when I opened DKos a few hours ago something caught my eye. In the little box on the right hand side the words "show ads" appeared. "Show ads?" What's that? I don't remember seeing that before. Ads, ads, wait a minute. I started looking around and noticed there were no adds anywhere.
Ok, ok, what's going on? I've been reading about this subscription push and that if you had a subscription you wouldn't have to endure the ads. And I've been reading all these cool posts that were written by people who had been given lifetime subscriptions. They were filled with so much happiness and gratitude. Many were written by people experiencing real hardship. Some of these posts were really moving. It warmed me just to read them.
Of course, there was no way someone gave a subscription to me. I must be missing something. So I went to my profile and didn't really notice anything. I clicked on "subscription" and read that I had a lifetime subscription. Seeing that, I figured there must be a mistake. Someone has confused me with some other Gary Norton. Or there was some fat finger keying error that would soon be corrected. So I waited and waited checking to see when the error would be corrected. But it wasn't. Hours have passed and I'm still a lifer. Ah fergeez. Someone must have given me a subscription.
I've spent some time wondering why I'm so lucky. Why did I deserve this. Truth be told, I'm a very fortunate man. My wife and I just celebrated our forty-first wedding anniversary. We have everything any sane person could reasonably want. We have our health, except for that little cancer thing that seems to be under control for now. And our daughter, well . . . we are blessed.
I have no idea why I have been given this wonderful gift. I could guess that it might be someone expressing their appreciation for my writing. Maybe I was able to provoke some thinking or give someone a better or deeper understanding of an issue. Or maybe I just tickled a funny bone. Whatever the reason, thank you whoever you are. You have really made me feel good. I'm actually quite surprised at how much this gift has touched me. Now I have to figure out what I'm going to do in return.
I hope you have a Merry Christmas. You have made mine even better.