MadMup.com

It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the United States. Most who can share in a few traditions: getting together with family, eating (turkey, usually), and maybe watching football. These traditions, of course, mirror what the Pilgrims did back on that first Thanksgiving. (Of course, back then the Cowboys were a much better team.)

So I did most of those things. I talked to my parents on the phone, I ate some turkey at Cracker Barrel with a friend, and I watched a few minutes of football. A semi-traditional Thanksgiving, I guess.

I was surprised by how many people were at Cracker Barrel. Have you seen The Santa Clause? Remember the part where Tim Allen takes his kid to Denny’s and it’s a few sad-sack dudes and that’s all the people that are there? It’s not like that anymore, I guess. It was packed. Lots of families with tables pushed together and no tables with just one person at them. How very odd. At least, it struck me as odd. Of course, when you think about how much work it takes to make a traditional Thanksgiving meal, it’s actually suprising that more people don’t take the Cracker Barrel route.

I also watched a couple of movies, played a game or two, kept up with the very-slow THorum, and took a bath.

Now I’m listening to song on repeat that has the opening lines:

People just ain’t no good

I think that’s well understood

You can see it

everywhere you look

People just ain’t no good

There’s a nice Thanksgiving song, eh? Sure it might be depressing, but it’s beautiful.

Thanksgiving’s a good time to take stock of everything that’s good in your life. Actually, let me expand that: it’s a good time to take stock of everything in your life, good and bad. Let’s face it, without the bad stuff we wouldn’t be who we are – at least, we wouldn’t really know who we were. So be thankful. Don’t be thankful in comparison, either, because that robs the sentiment from the thoughts. “I don’t have it as bad as so-and-so” isn’t nearly as thankful as “I’m so glad to have this particular person in my life” or “I’m alive and I like it!”

So be thankful.