Reflections on Thanksgiving 2013

**I wrote this on Thanksgiving day last year, and am amazed by how profound that day was for me. With no family close by to celebrate with, and my children spending the holiday with their father, I chose to spend my Thanksgiving with a dear friend of mine that I am very thankful for, whose friendship has been a light to me in the darkest of hours over the course of 20+ years. Enjoy!**

While sitting in a prison waiting room earlier this morning, waiting to visit an old friend from high school who is currently living there, I overheard the woman beside me comment that she needed to hurry up and get out of here so she could eat dinner and be at work by 5 PM this evening. She saw me shaking my head, and added "I hope those crazy people don't get to acting a fool like I know they will!! That's just too much nonsense for me to deal with on a day that's supposed to be a guaranteed day at home with all the good food to eat that I want."

Several of us had arrived early - before the 9 AM start of visitation hours - and although it was now almost 10 AM, none of us had been processed and brought to the visiting area. As we waited for what turned out to be an emergency inmate count after inmate clothes were found abandoned outside of the prison gates earlier that morning, many of us found our eyes wandering towards the lone TV they had in the waiting room, which was far too small for the high place on the wall that they had the tiny thing mounted.

Despite the volume being muted and the words on the screen being nearly indecipherable due to their microscopic size, we clearly understood what the "news story" was about: we saw images of tents lined up outside of several major conglomerate stores across the country. Not just a few tents, but long lines of them at each of the locations they were covering. Some had families in them, some groups of friends, but all were there and willing to sacrifice their holiday in order to cash in on such awe-inspiring Black Friday deals as a free $50 gift card - which, of course, they can only get if they buy some big-ticket item like a 50" plasma HDTV - or some other "IF you purchase x, THEN you get y FREE!!!" type of deal. Disturbingly, some had been there since yesterday, braving cold and idiocy all night in order to be the first or second in line..

There were several 3 to 4 minute segments being shown in a fairly compact rotation - I was only in the waiting room for a little over an hour before processing resumed, but had already seen the lined-up tent segment for each of the cities they were covering at least a few times. Besides an endless flood of commercials, which eerily were almost the same ones every time too, the only thing that had changed from the first rotation to the call of my name was a clip of the upcoming Macy's Day parade. Then it hit me: Macy's Day Parade. This isn't about Thanksgiving!! You and I have it all wrong, my friend!! It's about Macy's Day apparently, and these people are the champions of it, lined up in tents to show their dedication and loyalty to what this day is really about..

While those people are doing what makes them happy, I will be thankful to be doing just the opposite.. I will spend time with a person I value as much as they value "things", then will go home, curl up next to a warm fire with a good book, listen to some old Sage Francis albums with nowhere to go, not a care in the world, and all of the time I need to just be.  Then I'll write my friend a letter and thank him for the company and good conversation at our visit, and let him know that he is loved; gone but never forgotten. That, my friends, is what Thanksgiving is about.

So, as I sit here and reflect on what makes me thankful, such things come to mind as being blessed with enough good sense to stay out of tents in shopping centers, a warm home I share with three amazing young individuals, family and friends on the other end of all the phone calls and texts I've received today, having a dear friend who spent 16 years finding himself in the most unlikely of places and whose courage and strength inspires me to continue to build upon my own, learning and living through the ups and downs of life that have made me who I am today by giving me the opportunity to improve myself and learning to make love, hope and perseverance my choice, as well as all of the other blessings that comprise my life.  To be alive is a gift that most people never fully appreciate. One love!

If you are reading this, then know I am thankful for you too!! I love you guys! Hope everyone has had a great day!