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LJ Idol: Thanksgiving (Free Topic)
Nov. 29th, 2009 12:34 pmOne of the truly treacherous questions that folks toy with at this time of year is "What one thing am I truly thankful for in my life?"
It is treacherous in the sense that, when you get right down to where the rubber meets the pavement, it cannot be fairly answered as asked, at least not in any meaningful or authentic way. When answered out loud and in public, the question “What are you most thankful for?” begs for a “canned” answer, along the lines of “my family,” “my job,” or “my health.” (I mean, “I'm most thankful for my Kindle” might make some perverse sense as part of an Amazon marketing effort that was long on poor taste, but I don't mean to pick on Amazon, and I digress... I'm sure you get the point.)
By focusing on some one thing one is thankful for, one of necessity excludes everything else, which may be misinterpreted - either innocently or deliberately - as somehow belittling all other things for which one might conceivably be thankful.
Still, just because the question provides all the gripping surface of a greased telephone pole doesn't mean it's not worth thinking about. Too, just because an answer sounds canned - perhaps even to the point of insincerity - doesn’t mean the answer isn’t heartfelt, and this also applies equally to answers that aren’t “grand” enough in scope.
Last year, while working overseas, I ate my Thanksgiving meal with interpreter colleagues who did not grow up celebrating this quintessentially American holiday, which prompted me to ask them what, if anything, they might be thankful for. The best answer, and one that has stuck in my mind, was “being thankful for the opportunity to be thankful.”
Indeed, if I may be allowed a philosophical digression, I might venture to say that I am thankful for all of the choices that have been made in my life - by myself and others, deliberately and otherwise - that have made me who I am and put me where I am, in the broad sense that includes my family, friends, colleagues, work, and formative factors over the years. But if you roll all of that up into a single package, it doesn’t sound much different from “being thankful for the opportunity to be thankful," does it?
If I had to name one thing that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving, it is "being alive." And while I realize this response may seem to be the ne plus ultra of "canned" responses (and all the more so owing to not having had any direct recent close brushes with death), there you have it, almost certainly the result of having my attention repeatedly directed toward death and the departed in recent months, as an unsettling number of friends and acquaintances have died.
And while this makes me most acutely aware, from time to time, that I myself am nearer the end than the beginning, it also acts as a kick in the pants, reminding me that whatever else may happen, there is inspiration to be taken from the last line of Tennyson's Ulysses in continuing "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Cheers...
P.S. Curiously, my focus on being thankful for "being alive" has caused me to make choices that have resulted in this past Thanksgiving being the best I've celebrated in many a year.
It is treacherous in the sense that, when you get right down to where the rubber meets the pavement, it cannot be fairly answered as asked, at least not in any meaningful or authentic way. When answered out loud and in public, the question “What are you most thankful for?” begs for a “canned” answer, along the lines of “my family,” “my job,” or “my health.” (I mean, “I'm most thankful for my Kindle” might make some perverse sense as part of an Amazon marketing effort that was long on poor taste, but I don't mean to pick on Amazon, and I digress... I'm sure you get the point.)
By focusing on some one thing one is thankful for, one of necessity excludes everything else, which may be misinterpreted - either innocently or deliberately - as somehow belittling all other things for which one might conceivably be thankful.
Still, just because the question provides all the gripping surface of a greased telephone pole doesn't mean it's not worth thinking about. Too, just because an answer sounds canned - perhaps even to the point of insincerity - doesn’t mean the answer isn’t heartfelt, and this also applies equally to answers that aren’t “grand” enough in scope.
Last year, while working overseas, I ate my Thanksgiving meal with interpreter colleagues who did not grow up celebrating this quintessentially American holiday, which prompted me to ask them what, if anything, they might be thankful for. The best answer, and one that has stuck in my mind, was “being thankful for the opportunity to be thankful.”
Indeed, if I may be allowed a philosophical digression, I might venture to say that I am thankful for all of the choices that have been made in my life - by myself and others, deliberately and otherwise - that have made me who I am and put me where I am, in the broad sense that includes my family, friends, colleagues, work, and formative factors over the years. But if you roll all of that up into a single package, it doesn’t sound much different from “being thankful for the opportunity to be thankful," does it?
If I had to name one thing that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving, it is "being alive." And while I realize this response may seem to be the ne plus ultra of "canned" responses (and all the more so owing to not having had any direct recent close brushes with death), there you have it, almost certainly the result of having my attention repeatedly directed toward death and the departed in recent months, as an unsettling number of friends and acquaintances have died.
And while this makes me most acutely aware, from time to time, that I myself am nearer the end than the beginning, it also acts as a kick in the pants, reminding me that whatever else may happen, there is inspiration to be taken from the last line of Tennyson's Ulysses in continuing "to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
Cheers...
P.S. Curiously, my focus on being thankful for "being alive" has caused me to make choices that have resulted in this past Thanksgiving being the best I've celebrated in many a year.
