What are we thankful for?
Hanging out at Ordinary Times often feels like sitting down for a holiday feast with family: We all have a little too much wine, we talk with our mouths full, and by the end of the evening we’re shouting at one another about politics, religion, and the only proper and real way to barbecue.
I though I’d take that metaphor one step further this year. So I’m putting up this thread and asking everyone passing through over the next few days to mention what they’re thankful for this year. (Have we ever done this? I can’t remember if we have or not.)
Feel free to speak up, even — especially! — if you’ve never left a comment before.
I’ll start: A healthy and wonderful family here and elsewhere, the opportunity to have spent this entire past year doing what I love, the Seahawks (first year ever I got say that), Michael Chabon and Kazou Ishiguro, Wynton Marsalis, a week of rare sunshine leading up to Turkey Day, Breaking Bad not blowing it in its last season, and all my friends, scattered seemingly everywhere — and that includes all of you folks.
What about all of you?
I’m thankful for having the opportunity to get married to my beautiful wife, for my sister and her partner and friends who did the work of a team of wedding planners to pull it off, to my new inlaws, etc., etc.
I’m also thankful for landing a full-time job, starting a few weeks ago. It’s a temporary job (one year), but it’s full time with benefits in which I can work with history but not have to teach.
I am grateful (knock on wood) for my good health so far.
Also, a coworker passed away a couple weeks ago. That was/is a very sad occasion, as we were pretty close. However, I am thankful for having the chance to know her and wish her family well.Report
I”m sorry to hear about your coworker, Pierre.
But I am very pleased to hear bout the job!Report
Thanks, Tod!Report
I’m thankful for love finding me. Startled but thankful.
I’m thankful for my health and family.Report
+1.Report
Congrats on love!Report
I’m thankful that October and most of November are behind me and for my family.Report
I am thankful for all of you – actually I was just telling Jay that a couple of nights ago.
Thankful that Jay is back from Annapolis! Thankful for loved ones near and far. Thankful for my work situation once again being healthy and supportive, after a couple of years where there were some very serious problems. Thankful for my student workers and other colleagues, thankful for the close relationships or loose ties I still have with many of our students who have graduated. Thankful for all the feasts of the upcoming holidays, thankful that Jay’s mom has stopped telling us what we MUST wear for family pictures, and thankful that my school semester will be over in about 3 weeks, and my work semester a week after that, and then I will have a glorious spate of free time that will let me go forward into the next year. Thankful for all the kids I know, and the time I will get to spend with them over the holidays, especially.
Thankful that this year is not last year. Last fall was dreadful, this fall is merely hard. Hopeful that next year will be downright staid by comparison to the last few.Report
I’m sure we’re all thankful for you and Jay as well.Report
dittoReport
For sure.Report
I’m thankful for my son. He’s been here a year & a half now, but I’m still thankful that the fates (along with a lot of money & modern medical science) have chosen to grant me the boon of fatherhood.
The bug is a source of endless joy.Report
I was diagnosed with stage 3 pharyngeal cancer in 2010, the 3rd week in December will be the 3rd anniversary of my completing treatment. I just had a clean CT scan & my oncologist and I are both heartened by my recovery & ongoing good health.
My wife, Raven, and I have been together 17 1/2 years. We have a 16 y.o. daughter we’re proud of, and a pretty decent life here in greater South Pugetopolis.Report
You win, @neil-obstat !
Congratulations, and many more years of good health for your future.Report
Awesome, and how wonderful your daughter gets to have dad around as she grows up.
I’m grateful for my wife and my three daughters (oldest also 16). They fill my life with frustration, laughter and joy.Report
Congratulations and best wishes!Report
Nice.Report
@neil-obstat Wow!!! That is amazing! Congratulations on your recovery!
An amazing wife and kid is pretty damn good as well.Report
I recently got back from a great vacation with friends, in Rome and Siena. I got to see everything I wanted to and some extras. It rained for maybe 5 minutes, and I was on a bus at the time. (It’s the rainy season in Italy, and I was nervous about that.) I got sick as a dog the *last* day of the trip. I’ve got a lot of other things to be thankful for, too, but wow, that was a great trip.Report
It’s funny how powerful a really great trip can be. I’ve had several over the years that were better than the rest, and I can remember them all with an unusually sharp clarity.
Worst mistake I ever made at work was going almost decade without a real vacation, thinking that doing so somehow made me “better” at my job than recharging my batteries would have.Report
My wife changed jobs from a very troublesome one at a place that did not appreciate her, to a better job at a place that does. We miss Arapaho, but are thankful for that.Report
I’m thankful you guys are out of that job, too.Report
I’m thankful for pretty much everything, except that we still have mosquitos and it’s practically December. But then, I can’t really complain about this weather, so I guess in a way I’m thankful for them too.Report
Are the bats hibernating yet?Report
Not sure. Take a look in your belfry.Report
I am thankful for those that came before us who created this awesome world. Hopefully we can continue the giving going forward. There has never been a greater time to be alive. I would love it if our great, great, great grand kids could all say the same.Report
Apart from Maribou (without whom I cannot imagine my life), I’m thankful that the job thing that I’d been going through for the last two years (!) has finally not only concluded but concluded *HAPPILY*. I’m thankful that I’ve concluded studying for one cert and looking forward to being thankful that I’ve concluded the next.
I find it difficult to believe that since I’ve gotten married, pretty much every year has been the best year of my life. I don’t even know how to be thankful for that.Report
I am thankful to live in America, and I only wish my dreams were as bound by the laws of geography.Report
I’m thankful for the nine random people who corralled our wayward dogs last night a couple of miles from here when Maxi noticed that the gate was cracked open and Duffy went along out of pack loyalty.
I’m thankful that we had everybody hale and hearty last night with almost all the immediate relatives present for the big dinner.
I’m thankful that I can in fact nail smoking the turkey, and that my wife’s roasted turkey was still better.
I’m thankful for leftovers.Report
I’m thankful that the The League is always here whenever I am ready to come back to it, and that it is full of space awesome people.
I’m thankful that my family made it up for the holidays and invaded my personal space for a few days. Love them! I’m thankful for my friends, especially the extra special ones who put up with enough of my crap that I love them like family and I don’t know what I’d do without them in my life. I’m thankful that I mature a little bit each year, and that these are the people who allow me to do so at a pace that drives us all crazy.
I’m abundantly grateful for love; it’s a complicated thing, and sometimes it feels like too much for me to handle, but I know that it is the driving force in my life.Report