Greetings and Salutations!

Well…Here we are on Sunday morning of the Thanksgiving Day Holiday weekend. The flood of feasts has subsided a bit, and for many of us, the refrigerator is packed to overflowing with containers of left-overs. For some of us, all that is left are a few cans of vegetables of questionable vintage from the local Food Bank, but, hopefully, everyone had enough to share.

The sports contests between our guys and their guys have been decided. Some of us are still celebrating our great victory and the triumph of good and skill over duplicity and treachery. Some of us are still in mourning over the bad refereeing that pulled victory from our team and handed it to those undeserving incompetents that stood opposite us on the field.

The distant family who traveled in for (perhaps) the one family reunion of the year are heading out of town, working their way back to their homes in time to go back to work and pick up the interrupted thread of their lives again as the week progresses. For some of us, it was a good visit, with cheerful fellowship and general good humor., so we parted ways with good feelings and a thought that it will be pleasant to get together again. For some of us, conflict and strife arose, as arguments over one’s lifestyle, or, political opinions, or dress, or choice of companions, escalated beyond a difference of opinion to a contest to see who could "win" and impose their point of view on the other, and, the parting is filled with dark thoughts and bitterness.

I will say that, this year, my Thanksgiving experience was squarely in the positive range of the experience. While there were some challenges – For example – On Thursday I had to be in Bean Station for a dinner at 16:30, and, in Knoxville (some 85 miles away) at 18:30 for a second get-together. However, it all worked out ok, in spite of the fact that I had to bail from Bean Station before dessert (so got NONE of the Pecan Pie pictured in the previous post). Luckily, in my family we have such a diversity of opinions about politics and life issues and such that we learned a long, long time ago that the lessons of tolerance and patience that our parents taught are the best course of action. We may disagree about life, the universe and everything, but, we generally respect the other person and their opinion enough to pull back from trying to "win the argument". There were, of course, disagreements, and examples of folks (including me, I will admit) getting on their soapbox and pontificating about how someone else should live their life, but, it never even approached blowing up into a nuclear war.

So what should I take away from this? Perhaps nothing beyond the fond memories of some good times, too much good food, and, the tribalism of cheering for "our" team. Perhaps as the year progresses, the memories of this positive moment will help sustain me though whatever challenges life presents. Perhaps they will bubble to the surface when I am presented with someone whose circumstances are worse than mine, and, that will motivate me to take some action to help that person take a step up and improve their life. These days, with the economy being what it is, and the continuing flood of newly unemployed, there are more and more folks out there who need, not a handout, but, a hand up.

Pleasant Dreams

BeeManDave