Reply #1: A thanksgiving greeting

[shockingelk]

A client posted this Thanksgiving message from her nephew to her weblog:

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the Indians teaching us how to survive the winter so we can kill them in the spring, than by stuffing our faces and taking naps.

God Bless America! It’s the only country you can be whatever you want to be and be whoever you are and be equal. Well, that’s unless you are female, gay, lesbian, Hispanic, Black, Asian, disabled, atheist,overweight, old, poor, middle class, Native American, undereducated, Jewish, unattractive, live in certain zip codes, have ethnic sounding surnames, fall into lower tax brackets, middle eastern, unhealthy, a veteran, convicted of any crime, an HMO member, of non-christian religion, not owed something by someone in power, not sponsored by a corporation, not unionized, have opinions contrary to popular opinion, or honest.

Because let’s face it, we don’t really want integrity. That’s complicated. We want to watch the floats go by and be thankful for what we have. We want to help in the kitchen and compliment the mothers on their meals. We want to complain to our friends about family we can’t wait to see. We want to eat and smile and laugh and get drowsy from the tryptophan. We want to drive with the cousin we never really got to know to try and find an open store because there isn’t any butter for the rolls. We want to argue and debate and play with our nieces and nephews and wonder when we’ll have our own children. We want to look across the candles lit at the table to our friends and family and forget about the petty things and just love each other. We want, more than anything, to believe that’s what it’s all about. The love.

We forget about the trouble at work, the economy, the drive home, politics, money, religion, foreign affairs, civil rights, poverty, celebrities, movies, television, summer, ex-boyfriends, gas prices, discrimination, bigotry, hate crimes, the death penalty, automobile safety ratings, consumerism, history repeating itself, ozone gasses, the spirit bear of the Canadian Rockies, evolution, forest fires, the population, privacy rights, copyright infringement, urban legends, strikes, the squeaking noise when you make left turns, homelessness, epidemics, freedom, faith, and fear. Because in that moment, the only thing reflecting the light of the candles is the love at that table. And that love is the strongest thing we are aware of. The only thing that can catapult us so in that one loving moment, it feels like we are being thrust out of it.

And just that fast, the moment has passed. But we will carry that moment forever, somewhere in us wherever and whenever we are, that moment is there.

And who isn’t thankful for that?

Happy Thanksgiving