Thanksgiving

I usually like to take some time around thanksgiving to articulate what I’m thankful for. This year, I found it difficult. I am thankful, but, in Laura’s words, I’ve been thrown a few curve balls lately. So, I guess that makes me more thankful for the things I am thankful for and less thankful for everything else.

Let’s see…. most of all, I’m thankful for my friends, my mother and my sister. I’m thankful for the Bay Area, and all the cool stuff you can do here, easily and inexpensively. I’m thankful that I have this really pretty and central apartment and that I’ve stayed here as long as I have (huge surprise!). I’m thankful for my skills and education (Have I been writing a lot of cover letters lately???). I’m thankful for passion. I’m thankful for the health of my loved ones and myself.

Kristin, Julie and I were talking last night about The Ring. What’s really scary about it is that you anticipate dying in 7 days – you have 7 days to worry about it. I’ve been reading this book, Stumbling on Happiness, where the author (Daniel Gilbert) asserts that anticipation of pleasure makes it possible to enjoy that pleasure more. Likewise, anticipation of the unpleasant (like dying from watching a video) is that much more so. I have flower bulbs growing in my apartment now, and I am thankful for their future blooms.

I had a really good Thanksgiving. I started my day with a yoga class – heated and involving sun salutations (2 things I don’t like) but refreshing anyway. Carolyn and I took a walk along the Bay Trail, which was so so beautiful and, of course, the conversation brilliant. I went with them to Tom’s briefly (fun!), and then walked up to Anne and Ray’s for my official Thanksgiving dinner.

About 10 people were there, and not surprisingly, they were particularly interesting. I sat next to a property manager from the Peninsula. We got to talking about traffic congestion and parking issues, and I got to bring out my "toolkit" for solving these problems. He seemed genuinely interested, and said he would try to push thru some of my suggestions in their larger buildings (which was my suggestion about where he should start). Hey, maybe I did something to save the world right there at the Thanksgiving table?!

I love this quote from Don DeLillo: "I've never thought about myself in terms of a career. ... I don't have a career, I have a typewriter." I love to work, to do stuff. I love to tell people about transportation alternatives, and solve their transportation (and other) problems. I love to figure stuff out. I’ve never been a very good American with this idea of a sacred “career” that you build and guard and cultivate like a plant… I think it’s a way to avoid living.

And from Sharon Olds: “I was a late bloomer. But anyone who blooms at all is very lucky.”