Giving Thanks

Wifey, the Ds and I are known to be nauseatingly grateful, on a daily basis. Even when things go badly for the Ds, Wifey preaches the wisdom she's learned from parents who suffered the greatest humanitarian evil in history: the Holocaust: be thankful for what is going WELL. So as I write this morning, it's almost absurd. Talk about one's cup runneth-ing over... The sunshine is brilliant -- the light streaming through the trees is so pure and clear. Filmakers shoot more and more in South Florida because of it -- Southern California's smog causes problems, while Miami light makes it easy for them, or so I've read. All I know is the day is perfect -- cool weather, and the smell of tropical foliage -- tropical crispness. It's amazing. My old, dear friend Vince just texted that he's planning to join us at the Key Biscayne hotel restaurant that has become our now half decade Thanksgiving tradition. Hw's had more than his share of tsuris lately, but is clearly on the upswing. His health is good, and he's returned to the profession of anesthesiology he loves. He and I go back over 30 years, and we've shared so many crazy and hilarious times. His father was one of my mentors -- giving me wisdom for years after my beloved Dad died. Today we will add to the trove of laughter, I'm sure. Misery finds us, and often blindsinds us. I once read that the things we most fear don't come at us in a planned, understandable way, but rather "on some random Tuesday afternoon, when all seemd normal." That makes me think of a phone I got three years ago, from a girl named Lindsey I didn't even know -- telling me she was with D1 roadside on the Florida Turpike following a bad wreck -- and D1 was too hurt to call me herself. I calmly walked out of my office (my friend Mirta said later I looked like I was headed to a meeting I had forgotten about) and dealt with it. Thankfully, there was just some broken bones and a wrecked car and a shaken up Spaniel -- no catastrophe. But misery has been there, and will come, of course. But not today!!!!! After brunch, and the consumption of mass quantities, like the Coneheads used to advocate, Wifey, the Ds, and I will head to Miami Jewish -- to spend some time with Mom, nearing 93, and Wifey's Dad, nearing 87. Both of them have been wildly burdensome on us over the past several years, but blessings as well. My mother will look skyward as the sun hits her skin, and exclaim "Thank you, Mother Nature!" We're not sure why this 2nd generation Jew from the Bronx has, in her twilight years, taken on the language of a Secular Humanist, but she has, and it just adds to the delightful absurdity of extreme old age. I guess the message IS gratitude -- whether to God, Mother Nature, Vishna, or whomever one chooses. And today it's overflowing here in the 305, and this cool, lucky Daddy feels coolest and luckiest.