Musings from the Bunker #258 (Thursday November 26)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. That and Passover. While both are holidays centered around a bountiful meal with family (and who doesn’t love a bountiful meal?), they offer much more. Each is in its way a celebration of gratitude. In our family, each has gathered together family together in one place—from my parents’ home until today—for as long as I can remember, it’s been a day to celebrate family.
This year is quite a bit different. Some will celebrate in smaller numbers (hopefully all outdoors!). Others will break into their smaller family units. Others will have zoom meals. Still others will have a zoom toast followed by dinner at their respective homes.
While this year has been a focus on a harmful, often deadly, pandemic, we are rightly preoccupied with our losses—what we don’t have this year. We won’t be hugging as much or hanging around the table together as long. This year since March has been focused things we have lost—some greater losses than others, but all losses nonetheless—not seeing people as much, not going out, not traveling, not being with loved ones, not being at school.
But today, I’m going to focus on what I am grateful for. I have a terrific family that, each in their own way, is making a difference in the world. I have a great extended family that brings me great joy. I have my health (other than a few sore joints and ligaments!). I live in what is still the world’s greatest experiment in a free people living in a democracy, notwithstanding its occasional failings and all the attacks on that democracy in recent days. I belong to a faith, not dissimilar from others, that encourages us to look outward and act in ways that improve our communities and the world. I’m thankful we have the means to try to help make change.
I’m thankful for our book clubs, golf buddies, college friends, wine aficionados, travel companions, ski families, college friends, and Netflix.
I’m thankful of friends like you. I love the connections we maintain, the responses to the Musings, the corrections, the suggestions, and just the occasional “hi, I’m still here!” I have realized in our physical absence from each other—and yet our closeness on-line—how precious our relationships are with those with whom we share this journey.
Finally, my gratitude doesn’t extend just to those who are here to read this but it reaches to so many no longer here, who have raised me, guided me, taught me, demonstrated bravery to me, and touched me in ways great and small. They are forever with me.
Wishing you and your families a healthy and happy Thanksgiving,
Glenn
Comments