I spoke with her for less than 10 minutes. She took my intake information, wrapped my arm, vacuumed 2 vials of blood from me, and I left. We chattered throughout – about my messy coat on the floor because I had not seen the hook, about hearts, about the speed of blood, about Secretariat’s enormous heart, about the cold weather. It was lovely.
This Thanksgiving I am thankful for the human beings who continue to cross my path, most of them strangers – customers at the bookstore, clerks, other men lifting at the gym, the guy who just showed me how to replace an air filter on our furnace, the mailman. Every stranger I meet is a bundle of stories and knowledge, and if the timing is right, laughter.
I am thankful for many figures in public life, names you would recognize, men and women of courage and integrity. I am thankful for so many writers and singers and actors and directors. Once again, I have a lengthening list of those.
I am thankful for the people of Ukraine and for those who resist tyranny anywhere.
I am thankful for those who have given of themselves to care for refugees, for the desperate, for animals, and for birds and dogs especially.
I am thankful I have known so many dogs and have been kept close by 5 of them.
I am thankful that I am alive and able to make this list.
I am thankful for my friends. I just wrote their names on a piece of paper. How have I been so fortunate?
I am thankful for my sister and brother and for my nieces and nephews and for my parents, dead in ‘04 and ‘14 but stronger in memory than ever.
I am thankful for my wife Patti more than anything.
I am thankful we have kept our democracy, for now, but this Thanksgiving, that’s enough.
