Thanksgiving

[erastes]

Giving Thanks seems to have to have fallen out of favour in a lot of places. I'm not a religious person but I do remember that my parents always insisted on saying Grace before each meal - I can't remember when we stopped doing that.  You find that "thanks" is often very appreciated - I always thank everyone who does little things for me, like opening a door, picking up something I've dropped, or even serving me in a shop - it's a damned shame that a lot of shop assistants don't know how to say thanks or even to stop their conversations with their friends.  In that respect "Thank You" can almost be used as a weapon in this icy English mouth.

Since rubbing pixels with a lot of American people I've started to make a regular thing of having a thanksgiving post, although I didn't do it the year before last - for obvious reasons - but I meant to do it last year, it just never got posted. The concept of being thankful is not a new thing for me, because I learned about "counting my blessings" from the first time that that Noble Dog, Pongo, was counting his blessings in chapter one of The Starlight Barking.  I may not have a lot of the things that my nasty avaricious mind would like (small Georgian box house, pack of dachshunds and bassetts, two horses and Sean Bean covered in cheese) but I know that I've got things that many people haven't, and I'm grateful for that.

But I do have a lot to be thankful for and even when life sucks big rocks I think that we should all sit down and count the blessings. It's not meant in any spiritual manner, but rather in the whole "I was sad when I had no shoes until...." kind of way.  We all know that we are luckier than so many other people on the planet (and we can no longer say "we in the west" either) and that's it was a game of chance when I ended up as being born to aspiring middle-class parents in England rather than to an Aids-infected mother in Africa.  So I just think we should be thankful, and you don't have to be a Puritan, an American, or even to like turkey.

Thanks :

For my Dad. I'm thankful that he still remembers who I am and that I write. I'm thankful that he's managing as well as he is, at 80, and that he's got Aslan to look after. Even though he forgets the details, like which book is coming out next or where I am in the state of the edit, or that he's never read my work despite every week saying that he will.  I'm thankful for every day I still have him, and I tell him I love him every time I speak to him.

For rwday, gehayi, enolabloodygay, ruth_sims, tharain, Irene, queeredfiction, Tina Anderson, canarieschick, charliecochrane, lee_rowan, alex_beecroft. You chat to me regularly, buck my spirits, encourage my scribbles, cheer at my successes, kick my arse when I'm maudlin, make me smile daily.  That list was longer than last year, which is something to be thankful for.

For being kicked out of Steeles Law. I had many unhappy years at that firm, being bullied, and treated like shit - and I look back at it now and wonder what the hell I was thinking.  It's a case of "it's a job, so it's better than being without one" I suppose, but now I'm without one, I'd rather be without one for the rest of my life than ever being ground down and undermined like that again.  I regained my self-respect when they sacked me.

For my flist in general - to the people who friend me for no reason, to the lurkers who make me happy when they delurk, for the people who write, the people who knit, or rant about anything they want, for the historians and the philosophers, for the geeks and the ... uber-geeks. I love people who see mansex in a scene where one young man nudges another with his naked foot (because I do too) and I learn something on my flist every single day and that's something to be thankful for. Yesterday for example, I learned that a SCA count once wore "two welcome mats duct-taped together as body armor" and many interesting facts about David I of Scotland. 

For the cats: Lili, Lucius and Severus. And all those that went before, particularly Spooky.

For the Archers, Sharpe, True Blood, Robin Hobb, Jim Butcher, GRRM, Pratchett, and all the great radio and TV and books I've encountered this year.

For the lovers of gay historical fiction, the readers and the writers of it.

For Running Press.

For classical music.

Make your own list. You may think your life sucks but you'll surprise yourself, I think. People might look at my life and say it sucks, but I know it doesn't. I have a lot to be thankful for, and I am.

Comments

[fiona-glass.livejournal.com]

This is so true. I always make a point of saying thank you for small favours too (the open doors etc) and people either smile, or stare at me as though I've got three heads.

Best put-down I've ever seen was Eddie Murphy in one of the Beverley Hills Cop films, saying to someone who had just given him no help whatsoever, "Thank you. You've been helpful." It was the utterly deadpan way he said it that made it so clever. It always makes me smile. :)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Exactly - that's how I use it when someone hasn't, too. Specially on the phone with idiots.

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

Even tho I am not a very observant Christian I still say grace before I eat and I pray before I go to bed at night. Having grown up quite poor I am thankful for every comfort in my life.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That's good that you have some faith - my mother did - I have none, sadly, well done you!

[penelopefriday.livejournal.com]

I probably ought to do this. Every Saturday, in my personal journal, I write six things from the previous week that I am thankful for, but this is more long term - an over-riding view of the great things in my life.

I've enjoyed reading all my friends' posts today.

[penelopefriday.livejournal.com]

Oh, additionally, I thanked a small girl who held open a door for me and my son when I was burdened down with shopping. She smiled and said "You're welcome" and I nearly died of shock.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're welcome is as rare as thank you, sometimes!

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Thank you! But well, you give it back with interest :) I'm extremely thankful that I've had nearly a year as a published writer, and two contracts in the bag for next year. I'm living my dream, and despite it having slightly more chat groups in it than I envisaged, I don't dare be ungrateful for that :)

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Means to an end, eventually you can drop off a lot of the chats! We have a lot to be thankful for.

[haydenthorne.livejournal.com]

I'd have IM'd or chatted, but I'm not made for those. I tried several times in other situations, and I just...can't...do it...

Unfortunately I'm also a bit of an isolationist. XD But it's been a great year with my friends list all in all.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Hey - you email, and I blush that I missed your name off. *hug hug hug*

[lferion]

*De-lurks*

I'm glad to have found you and your work.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[mongrelheart.livejournal.com]

So I just think we should be thankful, and you don't have to be a Puritan, an American, or even to like turkey.
Well said, and thank you for sharing your list of all the good things in your life. Now I feel inspired to make my own list.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I think it's important to do - I do it often, and make myself realise that a roof over my head, electricity, catlove and an 80 year parent who doesn't need me full-time yet, isn't bad going. Plus the writing.. and.. yeah.

:)

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

:) U R a *