Thanksgiving Day: it has always been my favorite holiday. You don’t have to believe anything. You don’t have to take sides. You don’t need to be right and you don’t need permission. All it takes is a simple Thank You! But then again, that’s not exactly true. Gratitude and thanksgiving require a little more than an off the cuff comment or a token gesture. You have to understand how temporary and how fleeting both privilege and good fortune can be. I resist the urge to think some people deserve the good life while others do not. It is a self righteous, medieval mindset that has survived the ages. Our part in that unraveling is subject to the rule of unanticipated consequence which means whatever we get, we get.
I am truly grateful in so many ways but today, especially today, it can sound like mindless rhetoric. A feast coming together in the kitchen, a parade on television that will transform over a commercial break into a football game, friends and loved ones checking in by phone or text, a truly long weekend and oh yes by the way; Happy Thanksgiving. I tell people all the time; seldom a morning goes by that I don’t take stock in the waking up, happy and thankful that I get another day. To be honest, as an octogenarian you can’t take any day for granted. I don’t get weeks or months to weigh and task. All I can count on is today. So setting this day apart in particular is more suited to people who think in terms of seasons and years. Life is good and today is about all I can squeeze into my schedule. With good luck I will wake up again tomorrow and we can explore that new day but it will have to wait for the wake-up.
I am truly grateful in so many ways but today, especially today, it can sound like mindless rhetoric. A feast coming together in the kitchen, a parade on television that will transform over a commercial break into a football game, friends and loved ones checking in by phone or text, a truly long weekend and oh yes by the way; Happy Thanksgiving. I tell people all the time; seldom a morning goes by that I don’t take stock in the waking up, happy and thankful that I get another day. To be honest, as an octogenarian you can’t take any day for granted. I don’t get weeks or months to weigh and task. All I can count on is today. So setting this day apart in particular is more suited to people who think in terms of seasons and years. Life is good and today is about all I can squeeze into my schedule. With good luck I will wake up again tomorrow and we can explore that new day but it will have to wait for the wake-up.
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