thanksgiving, 2012

I'd been walking around all last week thinking
about Thanksgiving.
I looked at my calendar and saw that Thanksgiving fell on November 22 this year.
"Why the hell. . ." I asked myself, "is that date significant
 for me?"
It seemed to be so stuck in my head but, being distracted by the mayhem of real life, I didn't really take pause to
think it through.

Then last Tuesday morning as I was waking from my deep sleep, it hit me. . .
November 22 was the day, in 1963, that President Kennedy was murdered.
That was 49 years ago and in all those years I couldn't remember Thanksgiving ever falling on November 22.
So I poked around on the internet and sure enough, it never has and probably won't again for another 75 years.

 

 I've got no deep philosophical point here but it surprised me that - even with my more creative than average brainpan - I never even considered that one year Thanksgiving must inevitably fall on the day the President was killed.

I think I've mentioned, earlier posts, that I was 10 or 11 years old when JFK died so I didn't know or care much about politics or anything much more than I didn't want to go to school any more. But since then, I've read and learned a lot about the man and I've come to really like him.

John Kennedy was 46 when he died and in my child mind at the time, never imagined I'd ever live longer than that.
I guess I was wrong.

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends.

JFK pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey

an attitude of gratitude

I'm gonna start off telling you something you already know. . .
Life ain't perfect.

Still, there are one of two ways we can live through it and walk this world. . .
Oncely, grousing and grumbling about how fracked up it is.
or
Twicely, being grateful for the experience.

I guess most of us cross the tracks between grousing and grateful every once in a while; none of us are all one thing or all the other. (except maybe saints, but I'd doubt that too)
In my experience, grousing and grumbling gives me a sour stomach, while practicing an attitude of gratitude keeps my heart healthy.
So which side of the tracks would you guess I try to stay on?

as we used to say in the old neighborhood, "enjoy the bird."

Believe it when I say that I'm grateful to live in the Keys where most "Keysters", especially the friends and acquaintances in my life's sphere feel the same. And I'm grateful for my friends and acquaintances, their respect and appreciation for my talents and skills and the faith that, when I employ them, it is God working through me. I'm grateful for God's love and the human loves I've known - both romantic and familial - That both my parents, my siblings (all 5 of the knuckleheads) and children are all still above ground and doing alright. I'm grateful I've lived long enough to see grandchildren born to me. I'm grateful for my lifestyle of peace, relative prosperity and good health, that my mind is imaginative and usually smarter than the average bear and that I have a heart of compassion and warmth. I'm grateful for all the cool stuff I've seen and experienced that were unique to my time alive. . .
Mickey Mouse, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Beatles, moon landings, computer technology, a Mets/Yankees Subway Series and a black President of the United States. I'm grateful for the swirls of chaos and mayhem I've managed to whip up now and again and the profound peace I find in deep meditation. I'm grateful that whatever bad habits I have are small stuff and that the "angry young man" I used to be is long gone. I'm grateful for all the help I've gotten along the way and all the help I've been able to give to others. I'm grateful for God, Guru and my keen awareness of nature. For sailboats, bicycles, baseball and
girls wearing short skirts.
Finally, I'm grateful for the great Thanksgiving feast I'll be picking up at Small Chef at Large a little later today and the the hopefully hungry dudes coming by to help me devour it.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.