Yes, Thanksgiving is over, but I’m extending the Thanksgiving of good feelings into another week. After all, aren’t we all here to help each other (except slow drivers, who infuriate me)?

I thank all those who developed useful electricity, and who have provided light, heat, and transportation. These are things I am truly grateful for every day.  As we drove for an hour to my son’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, I realized that without electricity, and cars and roads, we would only be able to visit each other once or twice a year, rather than once or twice a week.

I can imagine what it must be like to live in a time or a place without these things, as some people still do. I’m aware of how lucky we are to have access to modern conveniences like reliable heat and running water because there are those who don’t.

I know that we all have challenges. Some more than others. I am grateful that for me and my family, our challenges don’t involve having to find food and water or shelter. But everyone, even those who are blessed with modern conveniences have emotional needs. That’s what life is all about — filling our needs.

And one of those important needs is a sense of community.  In ancient societies banishment was a death sentence. Think about it. Suppose that when you wake up tomorrow morning there were no other people alive.  Anywhere. Except you.

Can you cook?  Run a power plant?  Treat a wound?  Maybe you can do two out of three, but without the safety net of one another and community, would life even be worth living?

Whenever I fill a pot with hot water, I think of Lyndon Johnson as a boy growing up in rural west Texas. When his family needed hot water, no problem.  Just carry the pot down to the river, fill it, lug it back up the hill, cut a bunch of logs, start a fire, heat the water. It took Johnson’s family half a day to obtain hot water. Heck, all we need to do is to pay the utility bills and turn a faucet.

I’m looking forward to returning to work, which provides a large part of my social network.  I am grateful for and appreciate the people I work with. I enjoy working on projects with other people, and it gives me great pleasure to help others.

So let’s remind ourselves to savor every moment, and take time each morning to reflect upon all of our blessings. We have so many.

Good fortune is not an orphan when we help each other sail atop the sea of life.

Gobble gobble.

Alan

My favorite dinner of the year?

Thanksgiving.

And whatever dinner is my second favorite is far behind. In fact, as I write this, I’m wondering why I don’t enjoy turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce more often.

Our family does not have a drunk uncle at the festivities, but we do have the vegans (a fair number) and the rest of us omnivores (an even more fair number).

So forgive me (or thank me) today for the Thanksgiving gift of brevity.

I’ll be back next week, hopefully weighing no more than I do right now.

Alan

More than fifty years ago I was enrolled in the Counselor Education program at USC. To gain practical experience, we were expected to provide counseling services to members of the community on a volunteer basis.

That is how I met Sally. She was one of the clients to whom I was providing therapy.

Sally, at the age of 45, wanted to go back to school to earn a Master’s degree as a clinical psychologist. The problem was, she had never earned her bachelor’s degree.

Now some people might have been daunted by that obstacle.  It’s hard to start over at the beginning when you are approaching an age when most people are well into their careers. But not Sally. She successfully completed her bachelor’s degree, and then and went on to complete her M.S. degree. I caught up with Sally just as she was graduating. And yet, while she had achieved her goal of getting her M.S. degree, her challenges weren’t over. Full time jobs were scarce for a fifty-five-year-old. But, Sally worked diligently and with the same determination she had shown in getting her bachelor and M.S. degrees. In her search for a job, she sent out a thousand resumes. In the end, she was hired as the director of the mental health clinic of a small town in Kansas.

I learned a very important lesson from Sally.  No matter your age, or where you are in life, it is always a good time to begin. Didn’t the famed painter Grandma Moses begin her serious art career at age 78? (This was after her hands had become too arthritic to continue to do fine needlework.)

So if there is something you’ve always wanted to do, or if there are any important items still on your bucket list — why not start planning right now? A trip to Tibet, anyone? You can begin by looking up Tibet on Wikipedia. As the proverb goes, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

I’m writing this blog on Monday morning and already have three telephone calls I need to answer, so for now you’re on your own. I’ll leave you to plan your next successful life adventure. Then all you have to do is take the first step.

Philadelphia, anyone?

Alan