“HAPPY THANKSGIVING”
……………………….Happy Thanksgiving everyone………..Another year has come, and I’m another year older, but I’m not sure if I’m any wiser…..This Thanksgiving I find myself in a very contemplative mood…..As I get older I find myself thinking more and more about what makes me “happy” and what does not…….I find myself becoming more insular, and taking a step back from the world as it is today…..so different from the naive and blindly happy world I grew up in during the 50’s…….I find I watch less and less of the news, and only try to catch the weather report…..I used to be a news junkie, but I just can’t listen anymore…..It’s all so horrifying……The natural disasters that seem to come one after the other, the stories on global warming and who and who does not believe…..I for one do….and the hate and fighting here in American and the rest of the world is unrelenting. Our political parties doing everything they can to destroy each other, and make sure the other fails in any attempts they make to have something happen….even if they try to do good….just for the sake of power…..They try to crush one another, or stand back and gleefully watch the other party make mistakes without any attempt to help….even if the outcome hurts the American people…..you and me…..Instead of joining hands and forces for the greater good….these STUDID IDIOTIC men with HUGE egos just do their best to tare each other apart…without any care of how it effects all of us…..It is so sad that this is where we are at as a country today…..Prejudice and racial discrimination is at an all time high….It seems so many people mistrust and hate everyone else ……..Will there ever be common ground in my lifetime between the Whites and the Blacks, the Asians, the Arabs, and the Mexicans and all of the other races and religions? Who will be the next people that hate is focused upon??? All you hear about on the news are the killings and the senseless murders……I realized I was starting to internalize everything I was hearing……..so I made a conscious decision to stop it all…..”Stop the World I want to get off”……..Jac always said “thank God for our own separate peace”….. Those words are ringing truer than ever……..The parameters for giving “thanks” are getting smaller and smaller……..For me it’s all about my family and the few close friends I do have…..As the years go by those borders seem to be getting tighter and tighter, as those that we love and give thanks for leave us………hopefully for a better place…… I find myself escaping and watching more and more movies and shows on TV that lift my spirit, and bring my mind to a gentler place……I just can’t listen to news about China, Russia, Iran, Israel and the Palestinians, the Pandemic, the catastrophes around the planet, the new bombs being developed by China and North Korea, the fighting and shootings, and all of the other spirit breaking news we are bombarded with constantly……..For my own health and peace of mind I am turning it off…….Escapism….absolutely….survival of the spirit….for sure…….We all have to do what we must to be HAPPY…….So after this gloomy speech and sermon I have just given on this Thanksgiving Day….what does make me happy and thankful today????? Firstly, my family. Without them I don’t know what I would do. Secondly, my close friends and my extended family of friends…..all of you. I give thanks that I can still keep my beloved home, filled with so many memories……and I give thanks for my relatively good health………I pray that things will change, even though the more I hear and see the more my hope is under attacked………so…..I have retreated to my own separate peace…….Am I sticking my head in the sand? Maybe so…..but we all have to do what we have to do to be happy, and survive…..Happiness for me is finding a peaceful place for my body and mind to live the rest of my life……..I pray that you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. I wish you do what you can to spread kindness to one another, and maybe…..just maybe things will change for the better…………………much love to all of you……………………Louis
