Happy Turkey Day

To everyone in the U.S., I wish a very Happy Thanksgiving - it's one of my favorite holidays and missing it year after year has been one of the hardest parts of living abroad. This year my friends and I rented a cabin for the weekend and cooked up a turkey and all the fixins, but it just wasn't the same without the comfort of home.

As it is every year, the holiday is a good time to reflect on things for which we're thankful. I'll be the first to admit that such reflection often results in much sentimental pap, but even things said out of genuine gratitude can come across as insincere or perfunctory, particularly to those with ears that have been pickled in the toxic brine of cynicism and irony that is so often a by-product of modern life. A simple "thank you" to whatever deity or cosmic force we may believe in (or not believe in, as the case may be) is the essence of the holiday - it's something everyone ought to do on a daily basis, but at least on Thanksgiving if they can't manage that.

With that out of the way, the things I am thankful for, in no particular order:

1.)parents who have always loved, supported, and sacrificed for me,
2.)a brother with whom I'm very close,
3.)my awesomely sweet and loving girlfriend,
4.)the opportunities I've had, to travel, to learn, and to redress my mistakes - opportunities it pains me to have learned so well that many never have,
5.)being alive now, in a world that is not and will not ever be perfect, but has its share of beauty, joy, and happiness all the same.

No snark from me today. It would violate a sacred creed of mine.