Thanks!

‘The days that I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations,
I have really good days.”

— Ray Wylie Hubbard

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wherever you are and whatever your circumstances today in 2021, I wish you well and hope you find some reason for gratitude today. Gratitude is the attitude that repeatedly saves me from myself and my selfish fixations. As Ray Wylie Hubbard recommended, I welcome every day as a chance to choose gratitude over expectations.

Thanksgiving, of course, evokes images of European pilgrims and Native Americans sharing what turns out to be mostly mythical celebration. Certainly, this holiday shows the historical revisionism and hypocrisy underpinning the whole “story,” complete with inaccuracies and misrepresentations. For today, let’s acknowledge but move past the sketchy and somewhat rotten roots of the holiday to celebrate a universal sense of gratitude for all things.

For today, please enjoy some prior back porch stories about Thanksgiving:

• A Thanksgiving family crisis for my grandfather when his 15-year-old son was hit by a car and nearly died: “… if I wanted to notify any one I just had a few hours to do it.”
• My family’s Thanksgiving tradition growing up — the Game
• Thanksgiving 1989, when the world changed: Part 1 & Part 2 of the “Coast-to-Coast-Coast Romance in 3 Acts” when Sara & I first met, 32 years ago, and married 6 weeks later

To further help you celebrate this wonderful holiday, here are some suggested soundtrack cuts for before, during, and after the holiday:

• “Alice’s Restaurant” — Arlo Guthrie
• “How Sweet It Is” — James Taylor
• “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” — Sly & the Family Stone
• “Loose Lucy” — Grateful Dead
• “Thanksgiving” — Poi Dog Pondering

Meanwhile, ain’t no better movie for the holiday than Planes, Trains & Automobiles

 

Forever thankful — eternally grateful — Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!