Happy Thanksgiving from seacapecod.net!
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the sunny, brisk, beautiful still windy island of Nantucket! Great to be with you and yours on this Thanksgiving morning, the 28th day of November, 2013, a little after nine a.m. eastern standard, and it is a gorgeous one out there today, as the nation gets ready to enjoy some turkey, stuffing, yams, pumpkin pie and all the other ‘fixins while we take time to give thanks for all of the blessings that have been bestowed to each one of us, some more than others. So, on this day, I thought I would join in as well, seeing that we did this as a family, my mom, dad, sister and little brother every year at our dinner table in either Connecticut, Colorado, California or the United Kingdom–always filled with plenty of food, yes, and we would take turns telling everyone what we were grateful for… I am grateful for many things, none so much as my life, my health, my home on the Cape, my fiance, her family, my family, my work, pro bono as it is, work as a writer on this little website I created seacapecod.net. I am grateful for my book, “Taking Fog to Nantucket”, where I learned, or rather comprehended the word forgiveness. I am grateful for my optimism, my faith, my sense of humor, all of the wonderful pundits out there in the world of journalism, who make watching and writing about politics and the environment at least tolerable… I am grateful for Saturday Night Live and comedians like Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Will Ferrell, not to mention Sarah Silverman and Tina Fey… I am grateful for FOX NEWS and Rush Limbaugh (experts in placing foot in mouth), for they bring me laughter and wisdom everyday, while thanking the Lord above I am not them; I am thankful for the Cardinal, the Greater Black Back gull, the Great Blue Heron; for every whale and dolphin, grateful for the opportunity to SEA these great creatures, like the Polar Bear, before they vanish from the planet due to mankind’s folly. I am grateful for the vast oceans of the world, the mountains and the forests… I am grateful we are at peace, for the most part, on this little blue rock we all call ‘home’ for the moment. I am grateful we have a new Pope, Francis, named after my personal favorite Saint, St. Francis of Assisi, a holy man that truly cares about the plight of the needy across the globe, calling out global conglomerates yesterday and the damaging disparity between the haves and the have nots– calling on those corporations to see that blind idolatry will get you no where on the spiritual path we are all on, whether you know it or not, and that perhaps a few more CEO’s might take heed in what their Lord said in the book they all claim to follow, “…you will not worship false gods”, or better yet, “…what you do to the least of us, you do unto me,” as money and profit take priority over compassion and charity. Mountains of monies trickling down to no one save the heirs of massive moguls. I am grateful that the world seems to be shifting in favor of social justice and a more common consciousness, steeped in compassion and kindness rather than disdain and discard. A world that is beginning to see that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few… In short, I am grateful that my soul is intact, that I can hold my head up high and not be afraid–for this is still a beautiful world and I shall continue to strive to be happy! I wish that upon you and yours this Holiday season as well. Enjoy the day and be safe out there amongst “the Fam” (credit Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss from the classic 1991 film, “What about Bob?”)–even though you may not get along with all of them, they still are, after all, your family, remembering that “happy people are grateful people, those who aren’t, aren’t.” PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
