Ted Williams' Story Makes Me Misty

It's all over the news about Ted Williams.  He's a recovering addict who lost everything on his way to rock bottom.  The former radio announcer has been clean for over two years.  He was panhandling at a traffic intersection with a cardboard sign that said he had a God-given Golden Voice when someone recorded video of Ted demonstrating that voice and telling a little of his story.  Then they posted the video on the internet.  Now he has job offers pouring in and is being interviewed on television almost daily, and is also reuniting with his 92 year-old mother after 20 years. 

I can't talk about it without getting teary-eyed.  He is so humble and so grateful for his new-found good fortune.  Homeless, when asked what he would like to do with income from the job he would choose, he said he wanted a home.  An apartment or a house where he could cook dinner... that chokes me up.  He is being offerered major announcing jobs and when asked what he wants, he comes up with something so simple and something that I take for granted every day.  I have a home, I have a place to cook dinner, and I have a safe and comfortable place to sleep at night.  And I have so many more things that I take for granted.  I live a low-key, fairly simple life, and sometimes I think about the bigger, better things I want.  But I neglect to give thanks for something that is so immensely significant: a home.  It's so easy to take that for granted but Ted Williams has reminded me that there are many, many people who don't have this.  They may bounce between the homes of friends and family, they may stay in shelters, or they may sleep in their cars or on the street.  I'm going to give thanks every day for my home.  And I wish Ted Williams continued sobriety and all the luck in the world.