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For Americans, tomorrow is a very special day and for our friends in other countries, we invite you to join with us in being thankful.
Thankful not just to God or the universe or whatever benevolent unseen Providence but thankful to every single person who makes your life easier or more pleasant or more worthwhile.
This means being thankful to the homeless person that you gave a dollar to on the street. Thankful to the nameless workers all over the globe that made your toys and your clothes, and grew your food. Thankful to the animals and plants that have died to nourish you. Thankful to the heroes whose blood has been shed in conflicts that have made your life safe, or rewarding or even possible.
Yes, thankful even for your enemies, if you have any. If you don't, you might consider picking some with a careful eye toward future thankfulness. Why be thankful for your enemies? Well, a proper enemy does not make your life easier or more pleasant, true, but the struggle against a well-chosen enemy can often make life seem more worthwhile and that is a thing to be savored.
In America, we celebrate Thanksgiving with complicated ritual feasts and fellowship, including a certain amount of commercialism. And this is another cause to be thankful, for commercialization of a holiday is such a trivial tragedy compared to the greater ones available all through world history. Thank you football, sales circulars, and early Christmas jingles for reminding us that life is so serious that one must smile and laugh as well as cry.
I know that some of us do have personal or shared tragedies that mar the hope represented by a feast of thankfulness. It's not always easy to be thankful, but if it were, it wouldn't be necessary to set aside a special day to remind us to make the effort.
Hugs and thanks to all on the eve of this American feast,
Erin
Comments
Thank you,
Thank you, Erin, for all you give to us.
And I agree, it isn't just those who do for us we should be thankful for, but to those who let us do for them (even unthankfully). They are so important to us! And turkey and sweet potatoes and pumpkins are all optional to the celebration.
Hugs and Joy,
Jan
Thanks
Thank you, Erin. I love BCTS and I love you for making it happen. :)
Hug
- Terry
And a Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
Thank you Erin for saying what you did so eloquently.
This year I am feeling the necessity to sit back and reflect on what I have to give thanks for more than I have in the past. There are very few things in life that are true necessities, but I have those and for that I am truly thankful; so many do not have the basic necessities. I hope that in this next year I will be in a position to be giving and actively supportive of those people and causes that I believe in.
And I thank you all for being there and participating in this cyberhaven.
YW
Happiness and success are neither necessarily contemporaneous nor connected.
~ Gordon Sumner, quote from a radio interview I heard around 1990
He conquers who endures. ~ Persius
Thankful for the internets
Last night, a local storm took down my cable connection and left me internetless for all of six or ten hours. Well, except for by Verizon WiFi on my laptop, the backup dial-up account I keep active and the local MacDonalds with ATT WiFi. But still. :)
The odd thing is that the US Military was the main driving force in developing and creating concepts, technology and organizations that make the internet possible. So even the cryptocracy of a military-industrial complex serves to make our lives better. Someone works in Mysterious WaysTM, fershure.
Hugs to all with my cyber-arms long enough to reach around the world,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.