There's gratitude, then there's gratitude

Two days late, but better than not being grateful at all. Actually, I thought about most of this on the day, just was too bilious to write it up.

I heard somewhere this week—and I can't remember now if it was LJ, TV, NPR, or some other acronym—that this American holiday is rather unique in the world. Forget about the fact that most people think of it as an excuse to eat too much, watch football, and engage in shopppping frenzy—a significant number of us do use it to pause and make note of the things in our lives that make us feel grateful. "For five minutes, at least," said this person I can't remember, "we're better people."

ETA: The inestimable kmkibble75 reminded me it was the inestimable hkneale who said this about Thanksgiving. Sorry I forgot my source, Heidi. It was a lovely sentiment—and Heidi said it much better than I.

The flip side of that, of course, was a local news story I saw on Thanksgiving Day covering people who have a big family motorcycle/ATV rally out in the desert every T-Day. They showed one little guy (couldn't have been more than about seven) in his racing leathers with his child-sized motorcycle (which is a whole separate post in itself).

Reporter: Do you know what day this is?
Kid: It's Thanksgiving.
Reporter: Do you know what Thanksgiving is?
Kid: It's a day when we're thankful.
Reporter: Thankful for what?
Kid: For turkey.


I guess I'm thankful for turkey, too (about once a year), but here's some other stuff for which I'm grateful (in no particular order):

( Gracias. )