Thanksgiving

Tips for Surviving Thanksgiving (aka “Compassion”)

Last Thanksgiving, the NYTimes published an unusually good op-ed on an unusually fraught subject: how to survive Thanksgiving with difficult relatives. Written by Henry Alford, it began something like this: Like you, I have often wondered, “How might a hostage negotiator help the average American family get through Thanksgiving?” I’ve had this thought not because ofContinue reading “Tips for Surviving Thanksgiving (aka “Compassion”)”

Be grateful, but stay away from the Permagrin

In the NYTimes, the estimable Arthur Brooks — the rare research-oriented conservative writer — makes a case for expressing gratitude this season, even if we do not feel it. This Thanksgiving, don’t express gratitude only when you feel it. Give thanks especially when you don’t feel it. Rebel against the emotional “authenticity” that holds youContinue reading “Be grateful, but stay away from the Permagrin”

In the woods (this Thanksgiving Day)

In the woods, too, a man casts off his years, as a snake his slough, and at what period in life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Emerson [Pic taken this month in Chivery, in the UK, by Algo, via Treeporn]

The darker Thanksgiving prayer: Thanks, William S. Burroughs

Well, somebody had to say it. (About gratitude and the USA, I mean.) Why not William S. Burroughs? For hardcore bitter truth addicts only.

We all have many blessings to be thankful for. For myself, family and friends most of all, But today I am going to be thankful for the rain we had over the last couple of days, which has made our property on the creek rich with the smell of the leaves and the land…oaky, damp,Continue reading “Thanksgiving”