Giving Thanks Day Edition...
Amazing how that sounds when you REVERSE those two words that are in the word THANKSGIVING, isn't it?
Takes on a seemingly GREATER meaning to the whole day.
Pretty simple to figure out, and you ALL know that I am a simple man.
(oh, you're simple, all right, Bob)
Seriously, though...today represents the culmination of all the other "memorialized" holidays.
We take time to offer our thanks...our gratitude and appreciation for all that WE have.
And it's never measured by the AMOUNT of stuff, either.
It's measured by the QUALITY of whatever it is we're blessed with.
And that especially goes for the people involved.
I would feel MORE fortunate to have a handful of friends that have virtues such as honesty, integrity, and honor, than hundreds of friends that have none of those traits. And they would be friends with a capital *F*, and not the fair-weather friends that abound in our lives.
So, today, we take time to acknowledge such people...and to enjoy whatever we receive as the blessing it really is.
*** A long time ago, in a city not so far, far away we had our traditional Thanksgiving.
I say "traditional", because it represented something close to what Norman Rockwell would envision.
We certainly didn't have the HUGE Walton-esque table with all the relatives around. It was just Mom, Dad, and me (and the family dog nearby someone's feet), but it was a sincere setting, nonetheless.
Mom would spend the whole morning prepping the turkey (and it wasn't a huge bird, but enough for us). Homemade stuffing was mandatory...she didn't have "stovetop-stuffing", and when it came on the market, she didn't like it AT ALL (and neither did Dad and I ...we knew the difference)
She made the stuffing by hand, stuffed the turkey by hand, and "sewed it up" by hand. That's right. She had these HUGE needles that "pinned" the opening in the bird together so neatly.
Mashed potatoes were also homemade, and many of the veggies were fresh ones, because they were often cheaper than canned ones.

They were sold on the streets by the "hucksters" that drove by in old pickups with a produce section of a market in the truck bed, complete with scale (and really good prices).
These people got their produce right off the docks along the Delaware, and it was all fresh.
You'd hear them shout out the truck "Jersey tomatoes - three pound for half a dollah!...Fresh, white sugah cawn..." and so on.
Dad and I would be looking forward to a football game (when football WAS football), and all through the late morning and early afternoon, you could smell the magic being made in the kitchen.
When it was time to eat, everything else stopped...no messing around. We said a prayer at the table, taking turns (neither Mom or Dad attended church, but that didn't diminish their faith), and then dug in.
Yeah, it wasn't much, but we DID have a lot to be thankful for.
There were years when my Aunt Elsie (across the street) bought our turkey, because we just didn't have the funds, and neither she nor Uncle Joe EVER asked (or accepted) anything in return...that leaves a profound impression on you as you grow up.
When things got better and we moved uptown into our own house, we took in Aunt Elsie (after Uncle Joe passed away) as our way of paying it all back. We did the dame with Grandma when Grandpa passed. Eventually, Aunt Elsie had to go into a nursing home, and Nana passed away around the holidays in the early 1990s.
By then, Mom and I (and Val, wife through my first marriage) were pretty much it. Dad had passed in 1978, and the numbers at our table were looking kinda bleak.
Then Mom started inviting Val's family over. Pop and Glenn (both PPD officers) really enjoyed having Mom "do her thing" at Thanksgiving, and that went really well for more than a few years. Nothing like "shop-talk" at the table to make things interesting, that's for sure.
But times do change, and sometimes people do as well.
Circumstances became such where I had to make some decisions, and it eventually found me to Indiana.
Mom passed suddenly in 1998, Val and I had gone our separate ways, and I found myself looking for all those great times again.
I wondered if they would ever return.
I found them with my wife Donna, and her Aunt Wanda an Uncle Leo.
They became the "family" that I used to have.
We invited them up (from Portland) every Thanksgiving and they enjoyed every minute of it.
Only the big difference this time, was that I was taking the place of my Mom, in that I was responsible for all the cooking.
And I think a part of the spirit...the essence of my Mom is what I have received from her, even more than all the memories of her, because no one has ever left my dinner table at Thanksgiving hungry...or disillusioned at what I cooked.

(and I cook a lot, just like Mom)
I have carried on the tradition of making Thanksgiving nice for others, just as Mom used to for us.
Sadly, even this new found tradition has fallen on hard times.
Last year, we lost Aunt Wanda, and Uncle Leo is residing in a nursing facility.
So, when I speak of "the empty chair" at our table...I speak from experience at seeing them...there are so many to speak of these days.
It's just my wife and I now.
But, that will not diminish the meaning of today, nor the blessing we continue to receive.
It just means we have a lot FEWER people to share it with at our house.
Today, I will still prepare the food, and it will be good, and we will sit at the same table around which many others have sat in years past.
And I think of them with fondness, and know that they will never be far from my thoughts.
It's been a roller-coaster ride for the last 20 years, and thankfully, I haven't tossed my breakfast along the way.
It's been a study in awareness...of who I am, what I am doing here now, and where I might be headed.
Life is funny, in that you never are supposed to know your destination, or how you're going to get there.
But isn't that part of the challenge in this journey?
Aren't we meant to glean the best of things, and apply them to our lives?
Those traditions, those values, and even those people we used to have around us at this time of year ALL serve to define who we are..where we go, and how we will affect others.
May we NEVER lose sight of the meaning of what it is to be honestly THANKFUL...for everything, good or bad.
We have learned through it all, and we have become better people.
And whenever we give to another soul, in any capacity, all of those who gave before us are standing right alongside...and they are smiling.
That's a LOT of people to have on your side, don'cha think?
And remember, whatever you GIVE with thanks, you RECEIVE back in greater measure.
That alone is worth the price of admission.
So, as we get ready to celebrate a day of giving thanks, I want to wish the very best to each of you out there.
Keep your traditions, make some new ones, and take the time to realize JUST how fortunate you are, wherever you are, and whoever you are with.
And may all the blessings of Thanksgiving follow you through the rest of your days and touch every soul you encounter.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay safe out there, America.