Giving Thanks

The President of the United States will declare tomorrow to be "a national day of thanksgiving." Across the USA, families will gather to carve turkeys, watch football, and argue with long lost relatives.

My teenaged son will be with his mother's family for the occasion this year. My family is all in Ohio. Somebody told me "no one should be alone on Thanksgiving." But this year, I will be. I've been alone for holidays before.

And millions of us are, for one reason or another. Some have no home. Some have no one to care about them. Some are working in hospitals or nursing homes. I know what you're thinking: "Why don't you go work in a soup kitchen?" Been there, done that. I'd be one of several people standing around watching everybody else who had the same idea. I also spent one year feeding patients in a hospice. I loved it so much, I went again, and they didn't know what to do with me.

For many of us, tomorrow will be just another quiet day when damn near everything is closed.

But the nearby IHOP will be open, thanks be to God. I had my Thanksgiving there back in 1999. It was good enough then, it's good enough now. I'll probably go to a movie, or spend the day packing for the Thanksgiving Dance Weekend in Rochester starting on Friday night. I look upon this "dance gypsy" experience as the beginning of a personal odyssey, which I'll be describing on this weblog in the weeks (and months) to come.

So, thank your God in Heaven that you have relatives with whom to argue. Thank God there's still football. And thank God for Yahoo, where we can learn everything we need to know about Thanksgiving. Not to mention all those great movies on cable that they run every year.

Not only that, but I still have my good health. I hear the highway callin.' Till next week...