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A Message of Thanksgiving

A Message of Thanksgiving

Today is the day those of us who live in the United States come together around the dinner table and eat ourselves into the oblivious bliss of nausea before migrating en masse to the sofas and easy chairs and bean bags for football — or as some of us might call it, an afternoon nap.

We have a lot to be thankful for in this great land. We’re healthy, for the post part. (Some of us are too healthy, and should possibly lay off that fourth helping of dressing. I’m just sayin’…) We’re the most powerful nation on the planet (for now). We live in a land of plentiful bounty. (Did you look at your tables?) And we are safe. (Again, for now.)

Yet, it’s too easy to forget why we are here, how we got here, and who we have to thank for it.

That’s right. Today is that glorious day when the Titanic first sailed into Pearl Harbor and (then Captain) George Washington made his way down the gangplank to shake hands with the Aztec Chief and pay him a pile of beads for a healthy dose of Syphilis and a shipload of carcinogens.

I may have gotten a couple of those details wrong, but you get the gist, right? After all, we’re a nation that is often chided for its lack of … understanding about our own past.

So today, boys and girls, my challenge for you is this: make a list of ten things for which you are thankful and share those things around the table. If you don’t have anywhere to go, just knock on someone’s door, tell them I sent you, and ask to join them for a meal! And to everyone else, when some weird-assed whacko knocks on your door and says “Hey, this guy on the interwebs said I should stop in and have dinner,” remember — before you slam the door in his face, even President Barack Obama’s dinner parties get crashed.

So maybe you might want to go ahead and set and extra place.