I’m typing this from my parents’ basement, not long after taking a two-mile walk with my dad and their dog, Argos. I’m trying not to be distracted by the thunderous noise of The Pip running laps around the house to get the dog to chase him while he waits for the World Cup game to get going. The kitchen is toasty warm and smells like my mother’s apple pie (which is cooling on the counter), and Kate and SteelyKid are working together on making cranberry relish (a recipe that Kate reverse-engineered a few years back, which is a big hit with people who like cranberry relish). Later today, we’ll have turkey and all the trimmings, as they say, and then spend the evening dozing off watching tv. It’s all incredibly wholesome.
It’s also a great reminder that, for all the time I spend bitching about things that annoy me, I am amazingly lucky. I’ve got a job that I genuinely enjoy, and a bunch of side hustles that provide me with amazing opportunities (a new ridiculous one will be coming up in just a couple of weeks). Hundreds of people all around the world regularly take time to read stuff that I write, and even pay for it. And most importantly, I’m part of a really wonderful family.
The last couple of Thanksgivings we haven’t been able to be together here— in 2020 there was Covid, so we met in a park in Oneonta to exchange side dishes for apple pie, and last year my parents went to California to spend Thanksgiving with my sister. So it’s also a reminder of how fragile and contingent our good fortune is. We’re really lucky to have this time together, and thus I’m going to cut this short and go spend time watching soccer with my dad and The Pip instead of typing in the basement like some kind of hobgoblin.
Anyway, this is just to acknowledge our very great good fortune, and also to say thanks to everyone who reads this, or any of the many, many other things I’ve written over the years. Whether you’re marking today as a holiday or not, I hope you have a great day, full of things to be thankful for.
That’s it. Sappy, but at least it’s short. Heres a button:
And should you be so moved, the comments will be open:
Thanks, Chad - grateful to be able to read your thoughts and learn from you!