The giving of the thanks

Thanksgiving is an odd holiday. It is a story of some natives who saved some immigrants from starvation, even though said immigrants would go on to steal all the natives' land and give them smallpox. Oh, and also there was food. Lots of food. And so Thanksgiving was born, this tradition of sitting down and giving thanks and eating. Serious eating. Stuffing foods into other foods serious. We gloss over the fighting and the unpleasant truths of history and instead we celebrate a time when the fortunate helped the less fortunate and strangers sat down as friends. Why? I don't know. Maybe because eating pie and giving thanks are better traditions than murdering, stealing and having smallpox. Maybe we are optimists. Maybe we want to believe in the times when we all got along.

In its finest moments, America is a vast land of opportunity, a place where newcomers seeking a better life are welcomed with open arms, a promised land of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is the America that I want to live in, an asylum for the "tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be free," not a xenophobic, raciest, gun-and-fear mongering insane asylum. We cannot change our history but we can find a better way forward. We've all been lucky enough to be invited to the awesome party that is life. Let us give thanks and hugs and pies.

I'll start. Things I'm infinitely thankful for:

• Pete. For signing up to create this adventurous, humorous, ridiculously awesome life with me.
• People. The best thing to happen to earth since dogs. 
• Family. The reason I got invited to the party of existence in the first place.
• Friends. The family we get to choose.
• My body. For being the best meat sack I've had the privilege of inhabiting. And for taking me on all the adventures.
• Oxygen. For keeping me alive and all.
• Water. There are few things as deeply and purely satisfying as getting a drink of water to quench a wicked thirst.
• Everything that has ever made me laugh. Life would have been unbearable without it.
• Music. It makes everything better. Plus it's hard to dance to silence.
• Dessert. The best thing to happen to food.
• TrailsRoc. For adding so much love, laughter, dirty adventures and community to my life.
• Struggles. For leading me towards a stronger, wiser, more compassionate version of myself. 
• You. Because you're awesome. And also because if it weren't for you, I'd just be over here typing this nonsense to myself.

Lyric of the moment: "Everything you want's a dream away. Under this pressure, under this weight, we are diamonds...And if we've only got this life, this adventure, oh then I want to share it with you..." ~Coldplay "Adventure Of A Lifetime"