The Attitude of Gratitude
So here am I, spooning tiny bites of Stove Top Stuffing into my piehole, and trying to watch Boogie Nights for the umpteenth time around Smidgen’s wide, hairy butt. Another Thanksgiving winding down.
After Halloween, Thanksgiving was always my favourite. It seemed less stressful than Christmas. I still feel that way, even though I really don’t do anything, and haven’t since 2011. But I do want to send some shoutouts of gratitude into the aether, so here goes.
- I’m thankful for my friends.
You all know who you are, both old and new Tribespeople. Those of you who have been with me for a while have stuck by me when even some family chose not to. You’ve been with me longer than anyone else in my life now. And my new friends, though thin on the ground, have opened up new avenues to experience, exhibited goodness and decency that threaten to prove my theories about our species dead wrong. All of you: Despite my dedicated misanthropy, you still love me just as I am, and I am happy to reciprocate. When we are facing the Alpaca Lips, I hope we get to do it together.
- I’m thankful for the Earth. It has been quite a year, as far as space exploration has gone, but I find it incredible that we still have so much about our home planet that needs to be discovered, explored, and possibly explained. With every dim twinkle of light far beyond our comprehension of just how really fucking large the multiverse is, there is an equal twinkle far beneath the churning seas, something we’ve never been able to see, something even the angler fish, who can twinkle themselves, would be afraid to examine too extensively.
The Earth is where we open our eyes each day. Instead of casting those eyes to your feet as you go through the motions that are expected of you, cast them outward. Not upward, but around you. Everything that you are is star stuff, yes, but that stuff chose to touch down on a world that both nurtures and destroys us. We owe it to ourselves, to one another, and to our home planet to try to find out why, before it’s too late. Even if it’s all a hologram and we are not truly physical entities on the surface of a planet, it’s all we currently have, and it is a wondrous construct, so full of mystery and music. I’m glad to have been able to see what I have of this world.
- I am thankful for the music.
It has been a truly resplendent year in music for me. I got to see Jeff Lynne get his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and watch him perform live (on TV) for the first time in over a decade. I’m foaming at the mouth to get my ears on the new ELO album. Then there’s Shriekback, who has dominated my musical choices for yet another year, giving fans both old and new, the triumph that is Without Real String or Fish, not to mention all the rarities, reissues, and side-project material. I have long contended that, as long as the Shrieks make music, I will be “doomed” to write, and my friends will be doomed to read, or say they did! Even earlier today, I was constructing a possible chapter in the WIP, based on a Shriek rarity, ‘Shake the Big Tree’.
- I am thankful for laughter. As all my older friends know, I’ve been a bit of a laughter junkie since 2011. Laughter is the human purr. It’s present when we’re happy, and it can heal when we’re sad.
Being a devout believer in Jessica Rabbit Syndrome, I would have to say that laughter is the most important thing in this reality, especially when you are more than underwhelmed about trudging forth, but trudge nonetheless because you have responsibilities. If something makes me laugh, its therapeutic qualities are far from lost on me. So, to all the things and people that have gotten me through 2015 by making me laugh like a demented Vizzini, I am quite grateful for it all.
And there you have it. Short and simple. I tried to be as upbeat and uncomplicated as possible. I gotta go outside for a few minutes, ‘cos it’s raining, and that shit’s rare here. Happy T-Day, freaks. May the Dark Side of the Force Be with you.