May we be Truly Thankful

October 11, 1998
by Timothy W. Shire

Of the many holidays during the year a few stand out as having more then just a day off work or a long weekend. Christmas has always been a traditional family event that though it marks the Christian celebration of the birth of the Messiah, it has in contemporary society taken on the “family get-together” event. Easter, a Christian religious event is the marker for the change in seasons and people tend to celebrate it as a farewell to winter. But Thanksgiving, our autumn celebration, was rooted in the North American culture long before the arrival of Europeans and has become one of the solidly and widely experienced holidays of the year where the meaning and reason for the event almost goes without the need for explanation.

It is also so appropriate for being celebrated a two different dates that coincide with the actually ending of the year's agricultural season. Canada, being much earlier then the United States in reaching this season. For every person, no matter how dire or threatened their situation may seem, we always can identify the many things for which we can be thankful. The idea that we can take time and appreciate our good fortune is a testament to the positive and almost always optimistic nature of our species.

In my day to day life I have weekly contact with people around the world and that contact tells me how incredibly fortunate I am to live and work where I do. Only minutes ago I went out to the FTLComm van to get some equipment that we left out there overnight, Matthew who lives in Canada's crime capital, Regina, had sensibly locked the doors when we got out of the machine, but it never crossed my mind to lock my door when I got out because I live in Tisdale.

A man, who with his wife family and two children, lives in a suburb of Johannesburg South Africa, not only takes locking doors on his vehicle and house seriously, but also discussed with me his new gun he has purchased to defend his family and property. The financial office receptionist from his workplace has not yet returned to work after he stay in intensive care following being shot several weeks ago when two people decided that they needed hercar more then she did, forced from the vehicle at gun point they jumped in and drove off, she took chase grabbing the door. She was trying desperately to stop them because her two-year-old child was in the back seat. The bullet passed through her arm and body lodging near her spine, down the road a bit the thieves stopped the car and tossed out the child who survived the incident.

Another friend of mine lives in Capetown and survives the daily fear of pipe bombs and having her car struck by rocks dropped from overpasses. She sat down with her ten year old son and sixteen year old daughter and went over the contingency plan as to what they were to do if their mother did not arrive home from work some night.

It is easy to find the miserable situations that annoy each of us every day, but it is just as easy to see and appreciate those things that make each day an adventure not to be missed, things for which we can be truly thankful. Let's make a list:

1.
-
- The man with his bad heart who peddles his bike around our neighbourhood every day piling up some sixty kilometres of travel each day, just seeing him and knowing what a gift he considers each and every day he gets to ride his bike, breath the air and see the sky.

2.
- Our friends near to us and far away whom we participate in their lives and they in our own, sharing our experiences, difficulties and setbacks.

3.
-
- Our family both the members of our immediate family and the brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents living and dead, all have played a part in what we are, have been and will surely be. The support and trust of kinship gives us strength and assurance.

4.
- Chocolate, Coca-Cola, the aroma of bacon, roast beef, whip cream, potato chips, soft ice cream and all the millions of other flavours that are sensual diamonds

5. Sunsets and sunrises, plain and decorated.

6. The chirp of birds, the honking of geese and the hollow pining howl of a timberwolf.

7.
-
- The blissful whisper of sleep as each day or waking period comes to a close and our bodies run a few diagnostics and some important maintenance programmes are carried out so that we can rise again to meet the challenge of life.

8.
- The wonders of the common cold, many consider it a curse but it is the cold that catches us every so often gives us a gentle or sometimes not so gentle reminder about the blessing of not having a cold.

9.
-
-
- Water, pervasive, complete stuff that washes, nourishes, feeds the trees, polishes the streets, carries away the unwanted as well as provides us with cool when hot, hot when cool, and almost magically can shroud us in fog or crystallise into miraculous snow flakes and a smooth surface to glide ones skates over or lay placidly or angrily in lakes rivers and the oceans that almost cover this planet.

10.
-
-
- David Letterman, Dave Broadfoot, Robin William's, Roger Abbott, Rick Mercier, Linda Cullin, Sheila Rogers, The Spice Girls, Luba Goy, Mary Walsh and all the others who make us smile and laugh. Their talent and the writers who give them the lines and situations that entertain us help us see ourselves and enjoy the absurd.

1. - -	The man with his bad heart who peddles his bike around our neighbourhood every day piling up some sixty kilometres of travel each day, just seeing him and knowing what a gift he considers each and every day he gets to ride his bike, breath the air and see the sky.

2. -	Our friends near to us and far away whom we participate in their lives and they in our own, sharing our experiences, difficulties and setbacks.

3. - -	Our family both the members of our immediate family and the brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents living and dead, all have played a part in what we are, have been and will surely be. The support and trust of kinship gives us strength and assurance.

4. -	Chocolate, Coca-Cola, the aroma of bacon, roast beef, whip cream, potato chips, soft ice cream and all the millions of other flavours that are sensual diamonds

5.	Sunsets and sunrises, plain and decorated.

6.	The chirp of birds, the honking of geese and the hollow pining howl of a timberwolf.

7. - -	The blissful whisper of sleep as each day or waking period comes to a close and our bodies run a few diagnostics and some important maintenance programmes are carried out so that we can rise again to meet the challenge of life.

8. -	The wonders of the common cold, many consider it a curse but it is the cold that catches us every so often gives us a gentle or sometimes not so gentle reminder about the blessing of not having a cold.

9. - - -	Water, pervasive, complete stuff that washes, nourishes, feeds the trees, polishes the streets, carries away the unwanted as well as provides us with cool when hot, hot when cool, and almost magically can shroud us in fog or crystallise into miraculous snow flakes and a smooth surface to glide ones skates over or lay placidly or angrily in lakes rivers and the oceans that almost cover this planet.

10. - - -	David Letterman, Dave Broadfoot, Robin William's, Roger Abbott, Rick Mercier, Linda Cullin, Sheila Rogers, The Spice Girls, Luba Goy, Mary Walsh and all the others who make us smile and laugh. Their talent and the writers who give them the lines and situations that entertain us help us see ourselves and enjoy the absurd.