November 27, 2013

No App For Gratitude


Thanksgiving is my kind of holiday.

It doesn't require gods or miracles or tragedies or victories or angels or kings or winners or losers or flags or gifts.

All you need is some pumpkin pie, a big-ass flat screen, and a comfortable sofa to drool on.

Oh, and a little gratitude.

Gratitude, by the way, is a commodity in very short supply. Regrettably, we seem to have mountains of expectation but not much in the way of appreciation. It's a socially transmitted disease.

So this Thanksgiving, let's put aside harsh judgments for a day or two. Thank a cop. Give a bum a buck. Kiss an in-law.

I don't like Puritans of any stripe. But I like the idea of them having the Indians over for dinner. I know the detente didn't last too long, but any day you're eating sweet potatoes instead of shooting off muskets is a good day.

Be grateful that you have shoes. Be thankful that your cat is healthy. Compliment someone's posture.

If you can't do any of that stuff, then at least give thanks that you won't be dining with Whoopi Goldberg or Donald Trump. That alone should be enough.

Finally, do yourself a favor -- quit whining. That's my job.

And have a Happy Thanksgiving.



7 comments:

Cecil B. DeMille said...

I am thankful for dead dinosaurs that can explode and become horsepower. I am thankful for information that invisibly travels through the air at speeds so fantastic they throttle the imagination. I'm thankful that I'm healthy (well, I'm ALIVE anyway). I'm thankful for endless and amusing videos of cats doing numbingly idiotic things. I'm thankful for the people who choose to endure service jobs and even enjoy them. Most of all, I am thankful for perspective. Many people don't have it, and therefore are thankful for nothing.

Beachside Writer said...

On a similar vein...here is a TED talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtBsl3j0YRQ

Tore Claesson said...

Happy Thanksgiving. This year I'm sharing mine with 37 Chinese men and women in Chengdu. None of them have ever experienced an American Thanksgiving feast.

Antonio Sanz said...

Thanks Bob for brightening up our workdays with your thoughtful and witty posts all these years.

CRL said...

I'm grateful for,the twenty years,we spent together

Stephen Eichenbaum said...

Thanks for writing this blog

bob hoffman said...

Just getting around to reading comments. Thanks for the lovely comment. Couldn't agree more.