I was thinking of wishing our readers a Happy Thanksgiving with another one of my rambling yarns.
Fortunately, my son came to your rescue by writing in his blog a little piece explaining what he is thankful for this Thanksgiving.
Of course I am very biased, but I find his words very touching and appropriate, and — with his permission and with the editors’ indulgence — here they are.
I am thankful for…
I was reading the news yesterday — yes it was on-line and not an actual newspaper (hey, I went old school with my daily planner, don’t take away ALL of my 21st century vices). I came across an article about a teenager — 16-year-old Olivia Wise — who lost her fight with cancer.
As a last wish she got to record Katy Perry’s “Roar.” The internet is full of articles like this. We read them, we cry, we thank God (or our higher power) for what we have, we spend an hour or so truly thankful and then we forget and start to complain again about how rough we have it. Traffic, bills, fights with our (ex)partners…
As you sit down with family and friends tomorrow remember what you are thankful for. Try to make the feeling of gratefulness last longer than just one day. Of course we have the obvious:
Family
Friends
Home
Job
Healthand my not-so-obvious:
My shoes (and clothes in general)
My ability to walk to the market and buy just about any kind of food I want
My books (all 385 of them)
My notebooks and journals (all 523 of them … yes I have a problem)
The fact that I figured out how to hook up my laptop to my TV
My humor
My ability to ignore things (if you ignore something bad it eventually goes away, it’s called Scarlet Syndrome)No matter where you are tomorrow try to remember to be thankful for what you have — not for what you want. Yes, there is a difference.
This is how my son, David Dorian de Wind, describes himself.
Air Force brat, I have lived in Los Angeles since 1980. Frustrated artist. I have two dogs and a cat and love them all. I love to travel and entertain and I love to have people over to the house for wine around the fire pit. Oh, did I mention I was single. I know, I am amazed, too.
And did I mention that my son has a pretty good sense of humor and that we love him very much?
If you have read some of my columns, especially about prejudice and equal rights, you may have read about him, too.
Wishing all our readers a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Image: www.shutterstock.com
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.