Thanksgiving morning, 2005

Today is my 52nd Thanksgiving Day in this world.

I typically spend the holiday season alone, since I have no family. Today, I'm having Thanksgiving lunch at a restaurant with a friend whose family lives out-of-state.

I skip the television parades and sports events altogether. They don't interest me.

My health is good, and that's the thing for which I am most thankful this year. I know many people my age, it seems, struggling with health issues worse than my own.

I am employed, and after 25 years in a career that had me working most weekends and many nights, I am now able to enjoy a saner work schedule that allows me some contact with humans other than coworkers.

I have become interested in Taoism over the past year, and I feel fortunate to be able to able to say I'm mostly into the groove of that. We live in such a materialistic, competitive culture –– I feel relieved to discover a belief system that so closely matches the values I had even before I discovered it.

I could talk about all the things I don't like, and there plenty of them. But I have the other 364 days for that, so today I'll let them pass.