On this great American holiday, Black Friday Eve, what are you thankful for this year? I’d really like to know.
Here are a few of the things I’m thankful for.
My son started a new job and I’m thankful for that: So is his mother and so is he. That’s as it should be. Everyone should have parents who wish them nothing but the best. I had one of those; my wife and my kids were fortunate enough to have two.
The son also earned an LLM degree last May and his mother and I got to go to California and see it.
Our son traveled to China to pursue that degree and our daughter went to China to visit him, so they both got to see more of the world than my wife and I have. Good for them.
Not only am I older than my father ever was, but now, my sister is too. We’ve both lived longer than he did. After all these years, I still miss him more than I would have thought if I had ever thought about that before he died. I really wish that he could have known his grandchildren and that they could have known him.
I’m thankful that one of his grandchildren, my niece, is graduating from Cornell in December. It’s a great school and graduating is a tremendous achievement and something that I didn’t achieve when I had the opportunity. Cornell would have taken me back when I got out of the Army, but by then I knew I wanted to marry Saint Karen (she has to be a saint to put up with me) and everyone I knew at college had graduated. So, I went to work instead and graduated from a different, and lesser college, later.
I’m thankful that Saint Karen does still put up with me after all this time. I have never done anything smarter than marrying her and there’s very little chance I ever will do anything smarter. In fact, I’m a lot more likely to win a big lottery than I am to do something smarter than marrying Saint Karen. I’m thankful that doesn’t bother me at all.
Thanks to my son, who contacted him a couple of months ago, I’ve reconnected with another old friend from college. The next time we’re in California, or next June when we are both supposed to attend a reunion in Ithaca NY, we’ll probably get to see each other and I’m looking forward to that.
I’m thankful that we can still afford some of life’s little luxuries. I bought my wife a new TV and myself a new telephoto lens this year. With that lens, maybe I can get better pictures of my niece’s graduation than I did of my son’s most recent one.
I’m thankful for the pumpkin pie baking in the oven and the wonderful aroma that causes throughout the house. And that aroma makes it difficult for me to continue to think about what else I’m thankful for although I’m sure there’s a lot more. And the fact that there is a lot more to be thankful for–I’m thankful for that too.
