We said goodbye to Ed and Gina a few hours ago; this was the second Thanksgiving holiday we’ve had with them in as many years. Partly this is because they’re the only ones of our friends who don’t head back to their respective families for the holiday, but mostly it’s because they’re such great company.
While I was putting Thanksgiving dinner together (aside: 14 pound brined turkey, bouquet garni and onion inside, with pan gravy made with prosciutto, veal glacé, and Calvados; the Changs brought garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, candied yams, and salad; and Lisa made a killer apple Charlotte; and after all that I cooked a duck breast with apricot sauce for a kind of lagniappe), I started thinking about everything I was thankful for. This year it’s easy to break it down:
- Family: I’m tremendously proud and happy to be married to Lisa, and to have made my home here with her. I’m hugely proud of my sister, Esta, who’s living her dream. And I’m thankful and grateful for my family and Lisa’s family, who have given us so much. And my grandfather, and my aunts and uncles, and all those who have come before.
- Friends: All my friends from work, from Sloan, and from old jobs and long maintained friendships. Some things do grow better with age.
- Country: Even when its leadership is in error, I’m hugely thankful and proud to live in a country where we can fight for what’s right by staying inside the system and without resorting to violence. Heck, where we even have the freedom to write a sentence like that one.
- Music: Performing and listening. Yo La Tengo, Elliott Smith, Johnny Cash, Lady Day and John Coltrane. And even Gil Scott Heron.
- Writing: The ability to express myself, and having the place to do so.
- All of you. Thanks, everyone, for hanging in here.