Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote in Oldtown Folks that.....
The king and high priest of all festivals was the autumn Thanksgiving. When the apples were all gathered and the cider was all made, and the yellow pumpkins were rolled in from many a hill in billows of gold, and the corn was husked, and the labours of the season were done, and the warm, late days of Indian summer came in, dreamy and calm and still, with just frost enough to crisp the ground of a morning, but with warm trances of benignant, sunny hours at noon, there came over the community a sort of genial repose of spirit—a sense of something accomplished, and of a new golden mark made in advance on the calendar of life—and the deacon began to say to the minister, of a Sunday, I suppose it's about time for the Thanksgiving proclamation.....
Back in the days of my vagrant, murdercycle-ridin' yoot, Chuck Davis gave me a hippie pysch-shop button portraying a surrealistic flower in white on a background of bile green with an admonition to Celebrate Life. Implicit in those words is the basic tenet of Thanksgiving. A celebration of life and the appreciation for the rewards of our efforts, the blessings of family, and the steadfastness of true friendship. For many, it is a time of spiritual uplift and a special time to be thankful to God for the blessings He has bestowed over the foregoing year.
Ogden Nash noted that a family is a unit composed not only of children but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold. When I showed up at Boyz R Us, the proprietor, a guy who looked way too much like Christopher Walken, disappeapered behind the counter for about ten minutes. When he returned, he handed me Jacob and said: ticket please. A couple of years later, at the local Girlz R Us franchise, they told me there was a special one that they'd had in inventory for quite some time. It turned out, they were right. My kids have been a blessing and the only regret I have is this: Had I known how much I would enjoy them, I woulda started working on it considerably sooner.
Joan Crawford warned that Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell. It's just about right when the love of a good hearted woman kicks off the smoke alarms every so often. My cousin John calls it sizzle. Y'all know what it is. And when it isn't, it is even more apparent.
Thomas Jefferson confided that friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement, the greater part of life is sunshine. Friendship gets you through the dark times and celebrates, well, life. I've been blessed with good friends, several I've known most of my life. A few were life long friends, but we didn't realize that life long is an elastic term.
On another note, my clients have made it possible for me to earn my living in a rewarding and altogether pleasant way. I am forever grateful to each of them for that as well as their loyalty and friendship over the years.
May you, Gentle Reader, and your family be blessed on this Thanksgiving.
A tip of the glass to your health!
As Ever,