It's been a very good year. For that matter, it's been a very good life, and I think it's because things didn't go as planned. I live in a small town: not NYC, where I had planned on living (my girlfriend turned fiance turned wife slowly weened me from the idea, though, if I were single, I'd still be tempted by Manhattan). I have seven children: not zero or three or four (all numbers I seriously entertained, back when I thought I had a meaningful choice in such matters). I'm middle class: not rich, which I always assumed I would be, but I gave up that idea after reading thirstily from the lives of great men who never cared about money (I can't say I've reached a healthy level of detachment, but I'm not crazed about money--either lust for it or fear of losing it--like I was).
Thankful, I am. So thankful, in fact, that I figure something horrible is going to happen to me soon. That may be, but as long as it's not brought about by my own hubris, I can (hopefully) accept it.
What's on tap around the web? Not much, but a few things:
*The Macy's parade starts at 9:00, but the weather might eliminate the balloons. Boy, I hope not. I was looking forward to smiles and squeals from my little ones.
*Public schools might start using single-sex education. It's not the first time public schools have backed off their experimenting ways and thought, "Maybe the Catholics aren't all wet after all." Many public schools have also been re-discovering the virtue of K-8 arrangements.
*Jon Voight and Cary Elwes will talk about the film Pope John Paul II on Friday, November 24, 8 pm Eastern (5 pm Pacific) on "The World Over" hosted by Raymond Arroyo on EWTN.
Some of you may recall that I posted a different Thanksgiving quote every hour last year. I'm not repeating the effort, but I went into the archives and grabbed a handful of my favorites:
“Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.” Samuel Johnson
“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” G.K. Chesterton
“Gratitude is characteristic only of the humble. The egotistic are so impressed by their own importance that they take everything given them as if it were their due. They have no room in their hearts for recollection of the undeserved favors they received.” Fulton Sheen
“Draft day and Thanksgiving Day are the only good days to be a Detroit Lions fan.” Eric Scheske
Pray for the atheists today, their hardest day of the year. Anonymous
“When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting.” St. Jerome
“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.” Meister Eckhart
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