Time to give thanks


The article "Give Thanks" is from The Morning issue of the NYT for Thanksgiving Day:

Give thanks

Here’s a Thanksgiving mantra, though: Everything is going to be all right.

That turkey you’re roasting for the first or millionth time? It’s going to be fine, even if you overcook the breasts. That casserole your cousin’s bringing, again, as she always does, with the marshmallows and underdone yams? It won’t hurt anyone.

The potluck you’ve been invited to will be fine. Your stepfather’s enjoying himself, frying a bird on the slope of the driveway. Step away. You have a fire extinguisher. (Right?)

Give thanks for friendship, for family, for whatever it is you find yourself doing today on this strange secular holiday that binds so many of us together in the presence of food and drink. You’re good. She’s good. They’re good. On Thanksgiving, we’re all good.

I’ll tell you four more things about the holiday before we get to the rest of the news.

  • First, if you’re just starting to sketch out a Thanksgiving plan, you should stop immediately. Instead, figure out if there’s a good restaurant open nearby. That frozen turkey at the supermarket is not going to be thawed until December.
  • Second, you’re not going to change anyone’s mind about anything today. That’s not what the holiday is about. There’s no need to argue. Pass the gravy. Tell people about your favorite show or novel or song. Talk about snow!
  • Third, you’re not going to change anyone’s behavior, especially if that person is a full-grown adult. Put ashtrays outside the front door if you have to. Stock Diet Mountain Dew for your cousin who drinks it. Allow your uncle who won’t stop talking to continue to squawk — it’s one day a year. Say it with me: Of course you can watch the Packers game!
  • Finally, know that the time to start making plans for Thanksgiving leftovers is now. It’s a way to keep the excitement alive, a way to ask: What’s next? My old friends at New York Times Cooking have plenty of ideas for that. (I’ll be making bang bang turkey, myself.)

Above all, and once more: Give thanks as you move through the day. Say it aloud to all who are present. We can talk about the complicated history of the holiday later: its roots in colonialism, its roots in gauzy nostalgia, its roots in our shared American narrative. Today, be grateful. And hug your people tight.


My going-in Thanks of the day is opening my computer to see an email from my longTime Navy friend and confidant. This unique friendship goes back 54 years to a shared duty station, and was renewed years ago when he wrote to ask if I was that Tom Weller. The only two Navy officers in our section of that duty station in Columbus, Ohio, both of us graduates of the Univ for Michigan, we were close then, and I remember the day after he'd PCS'd to San Diego for sea duty, WestPac and the Vietnam War, feeling that the bottom had fallen out. 

It's a blessing to have in your life a friend you can trust and do trust, and who trusts you. Give Thanks if you do. 

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A sunny but cool morning here, 47°F, wind from due North at 12 mph with gusts to 26 mph. From my Bay side window it looks as though we are pretty much ready for arrival of the loved ones. Kristen coming in from PCB, TJCC from Tallahassee, all arriving, my guess, about ten-thirty of so. As before, Jeremy will take charge of the turkey, splay and roasting and all will be Weil. 

Tuesday I made my usual oyster dressing, but I cooked it too long, plus I used West Coast oysters, the "extra small" ones that were so big I had to cut them up in the dressing mix. It was not a success this Time, so between Tuesday and yesterday I ate most of it, all I wanted, and that was that. Next Time I'll use only local area oysters. 

Joe is on schedule to drive down in December for a few days, we're planning to take him out for oysters while he's here. Captain's Table, Gene's, or Hunt's. The other day at Captain's Table I was served two different oysters, Crystal River, Florida oysters on the small side of medium; Texas oysters on the large side of medium or small side of large, all excellent with perfect salinity. I'm thankful to live where we can enjoy fresh seafood. 

What else am I thankful for this TG day? Well, term limits for one, that's fer sure, that's fer dang sure. Ninety years old, Sixty-eight years married and beloved progeny, Twenty years Navy, Fourteen years Trinity, all my on and off and on years at Holy Nativity since 1955, Grace Church, St Thomas by the Sea. HNES. Living to see the STREAM building under construction and coming to life: when we stopped by earlier in the week the brick was already going on. Friends and Loved Ones. Life: having lived it when and where I did. Everything that went before me, all the diverging roads in the yellow wood that brought me to 7H at this Time. 

All in All, baruch ata, Adonai Eloheinu, melek ha-olam, shehecheyanu. 

RSF&PTL

T90

Pic: when the Time changed earlier this month, I put a new battery in my atomic clock and relied on it to reset itself to the proper Fall Back Hour. It did not, so I've just ignored it these weeks. Yesterday I replaced the battery and put the clock outside on 7H porch: outside, with better access to the Time transmission, it set itself correctly. I'll bring it back inside later. T