Thanksgiving 2004

Yesterday's entry was about hope in America as a lead in to today's post on Thanksgiving.

What are you thankful for?

I am thankful that I have never injured another person in anger or even by accident.

I am thankful to have never supported an act of violence - and certainly never a war.

I am thankful to live in an old house, decrepit as it is, that shelters me and gives me some connection to my roots.

I am thankful for my friends, especially my brightest and funniest friends.

I am thankful that some shreds of nature and tracts of wilderness are hanging on with enough vitality that we might rescue and resusitate them.

I am thankful for the triumph of moderation and collective wisdom in some other countries in the world - a sort of humililty and cooperation notably diminished in America today, a country in which even the excesses of Thanksgiving seem tainted by the very HABIT of excess in this culture.

I am thankful for beauty and grace and compassion wherever they exist and strive to thrive.

I am thankful for endorphins and any scraps of reasonable hope and progress we can muster.

I am thankful for courageous voices that speak truth to power.

I am thankful for my romantic notion that there may be, somehow, a better life ahead than what we've left behind and what we face today.

I am thankful for sidewalks and front porches and friendly shopkeepers and good food and clean water and lovely beverages and weather that stirs the soul and books that stir the mind and hugs that take hold down deep and kisses that really matter and love that lasts and triumphs over all the things that seem to get in its way.

If you must pray for anything and cling desperately to anything, make it love. Love, peace, civility, good manners, grace, patience, and beauty may not be able to conquer all, but we must carry on as if they just might.

And thanks to you, dear readers, near and far.

Take care.