Happy Unthanksgiving and Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Unthanksgiving and Happy Thanksgiving 

You’ve heard this before, and you’ll probably hear it another hundred times this Thanksgiving Holiday. It’s the one thing people tell you about Thanksgiving besides how much they like turkey. What you’ve heard is that Thanksgiving traditionally is a time when we all talk about the things we’re most thankful for.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m not the kind of person who likes to talk about the stuff that makes me Thankful or happy or sad or excited or bored. I keep that sort of stuff pretty much to myself. Maybe it’s just a guy thing. Guys, in my experience, like to play it pretty close to the vest.

This year, however, I’m going to give into the question about what makes me thankful and tell you what makes me thankful.

Before I tell you that, however, I want to tell you something else about myself, something related to my thankfulness. I’m going to tell you what doesn’t make me thankful. Don’t worry. I’ll try to keep this part short.

I’m not thankful for how divided America seems right now. Growing up as a Polish refugee here, I always admired how Americans seemed to work together through crises. That seems gone. I’m also not thankful for the pandemic. I want COVID to just leave, disappear. I’ve had enough of living in the pandemic with its endless spikes in COVID cases and its arguments about vaccinations and masks. I’m also not thankful for climate change. I read this morning that penguins are disappearing because the Antarctic is warming up. I don’t want penguins or elephants or pandas or people to disappear because of climate change. I want my 12-year old granddaughter to be able to tell her kids and grandkids about how much she loves those animals and how they should love them too!

Okay, I’m done talking about what I’m not thankful for. There’s probably a lot more, but I don’t have a lot of space here to yak on and on about it.

So here’s what I’m thankful for.

I’m thankful for my wife Linda whose love has kept me happy and focused for the last 46 years. When I met her I was an alcoholic, drug-taking hippie trying to escape from a life that was completely screwed up. She pointed me in the right direction and helped me become the guy I am. She also gave me a great daughter Lillian and a great granddaughter Lucy. We all live together, and it’s a life that is fun and loving and creative.

What else am I thankful for?

I’m thankful for my writing, my breathing, the trees in my backyard, the way the deer slowly wander through those trees. I’m thankful too for crunchy granola cereal in the morning, wine in the evening, and a granddaughter who loves to practice her ballet everywhere.

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My latest column for the Dziennik Zwiazkowy 

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