Today, it’s customary to be thankful, and so I am in 51 incredible ways:
- That I exist. That two people got together and decided to create life and that it worked and that I am the outcome of that process. Think for a minute of how cool that is, of all the things that had to happen that you exist. And yet you do. Just your existence is like hitting the lottery.
- That I had people who sacrificed and did their best to take care of me and bring me up, starting with my parents. And then my grandparents and other friends and relatives who looked out for me, nurtured me, and were kind and generous to me.
- For my sister, who helped teach how to (and how not) to relate to other people. And who, under certain circumstances, gave my parents an alternate target…
- For all the teachers I had from the time I started school. There were some special ones along the way: Mrs. Thorne, Miss Murray, Mrs. Pelon, Ms. Muthig, Mrs. Wert, Mr. Dickinson (critter report, anyone? and the ever-important B-O-N-U-S), Sr. Jean, Sr. Barbara, Mr. Pesha, Dr. Lubin, and the rest.
- For my grandfather. All of my grandparents were special people who blessed my life, but my relationship with my grandfather was special. I don’t remember any more, really, beyond the pictures, but I know there was something there. I didn’t get so spend very long with him, but I was blessed for the time there was.
- For being six. I can remember for some reason thinking that being six was the best thing you could be. That it was awesome and it didn’t get any better than that.
- For Mike Ostermann, my best friend in my early years. Mike was into war stuff and because of him, I started drawing, war stuff mostly.
- For my bike, a blue Roll-Fast with a banana seat that could lay down a skid that extended from here to the horizon (except on Mr. Sanford’s part of the sidewalk. I got in trouble for that).
- For discovering sports. A few early memories were watching the last out of the 1972 World Series, Super Bowl VII, and my life-long love-hate affair with the Mets and Jets. There’s been a lot of frustration, but it’s added a lot to my life, too.
- For moving to Galway. It totally rocked having a back yard big enough to play football in. And driving the tractor was cool, until I had to use it to mow the lawn.
- For square dancing. We had to do it when I was in fifth grade. And it showed me that if I worked at something I could actually accomplish it. It felt special when our class was the one that got to do this extra thing none of the other classes could do. Thanks, Mrs. Pelon.
- For girls. I discovered that for some reason I really liked Gail Shufelt and Wendy something-or-other. I didn’t quite know why, but they were awesome.
- For playing baseball. I didn’t do it for very long and I was never very good at it, but I think it helped seed my son’s love for the game, a game he plays today.
- For going to Indian Lake in the summertime. It was always special. The huge porch, the lazy afternoons, the cool breeze coming in the window at night, and all the special stuff that happened up there. It’s still a place with some of my favorite memories.
- For going to camp in the summer. For the experience of having snapped Connie Adams’ bra strap. It’s not a cool thing now, but it was pretty neat at that age and the best I could really do in terms of flirting. She didn’t seem to mind (and if she did and she somehow reads this, I was an idiot).
- For televised sports. Even today, I hold special memories of A. B. C’s. Monday Night Football (back when it was like a mini-Super Bowl each week) and the Saturday game of the week. And Pat Summerall telling everyone to watch Murder……….She Wrote.
- For Galway Market. I didn’t know it at the time, but that job was one of the best I ever had. It was like working at Cheers, but in real life. It was a lot of fun and I wish I’d realized it then.
- For discovering that there is life after high school. Really cool and abundant life. It was kind of scary at the time, but it was the first time my world got bigger. It wouldn’t be the last.
- For radio. I have never had more fun at work then when I was on the air. WGFR, WSCG (Country 93), WKOL, WCSS, and WBZA. That was, I think, my first, best destiny, and I was glad I got to do it.
- For the friends I made at my three colleges. Jane Lundgren, Ray Anderson, Carrie Ruby, Larry Miller, Janine Sorrell, Kevin Rock, Dan DeYoung, Jennifer Sears, Deanna DeBrine, Katie Talmage, and others I’ve probably forgotten and lost track of along the way.
- For the family dinners. They were a high point of the year and it was really cool of my grandmother to seed the money required to start it. I know that over the years that money’s been added to, and the memories of them will always be special.
- For getting out in the world and starting on my own. It was the first step–and it was baby steps. It may have been playing the Father Justin Rosary Hour and announcing lost dogs and cats on Sunday afternoon. But it was awesome. And that time we filled up the CARLO (Bingo) tub with Gold Fish crackers…it was the best. Poor Lloyd Smith.
- For the 1986 New York Mets. The day I turned 23, I didn’t sleep the night before and then I didn’t make it to take the GREs because the clutch on my car went. But I went up to Galway Market and had a birthday celebration and then Lenny Dykstra homered. Until later in life, that was the most fun I’d ever had watching baseball.
- For living in downtown Albany for a year. It was scary when fires started to happen in the apartment building I lived in, but it was a really cool place to live. The Ghetto Chopper, The Lark Tavern, the Ben and Jerry’s, McGeary’s, and the meatball sub place were also awesome.
- For discovering the writing of Robert B. Parker in Caldor at Crossgates Mall. I got my first Spenser because in it, he used the phrase “take a flying f— at a rolling donut,” which was a phrase my friend Dan used in a letter he wrote me once. It was love at first read.
- For Peg and Pat and the world they opened for me by allowing me to stay with them and learn how to program computers. If not for them, my life is so incredibly different as to be unrecognizable.
- For meeting my wife Laura at work. The QA woman. I actually caught hell, indirectly, for dating her. I think one of the guys I worked with thought I was beholden to her and slowing things down. Supposedly I gave in too easily to the QA demands because I was in love.
- For MusicFest in Bethlehem, PA. Always a fun way to wind down the summer.
- For all the people who helped make our wedding so amazing. I still hear what a great party it was, and I still have fond memories. Of most of it.
- For the blessing that came into my life with the birth of my daughter Jenny. She’s a truly amazing person, someone who has achieved and conquered things I can only imagine, and she’s still very young. She helped make me a better person.
- For my in-laws, two amazingly generous and giving people. I have never felt less than at home with them. They’ve made a huge difference in my life and the lives of everyone in my family.
- For the experience of living in Arizona. It’s still one of my favorite places and the home of the best pie in the entire world. I loved it out there, and though we only lived there a short time, it was a memorable time.
- For the experience of living in Chicago. Hated it while I lived there because the sun never, ever came out. But I met some incredible people there and became a horrible pizza snob–a trait I proudly retain to today.
- For the blessing that came into my life with my son Daniel. He’s an amazing young man who’s still figuring it out, as is proper for his age. But he’s gonna be amazing.
- For the experience of living in Florida. Holy cow, it’s hot here, but it’s the place where my children laid the foundation for their lives and became the people they are today. There are some many people here who’ve helped that happen that I can’t even imagine life without them.
- For my grandmother, the last of my grandparents to die. Even into my thirties, she always made me feel special.
- For the Internet, which has made it possible for me to connect with and get to know so many amazing people.
- For the experience of being laid off. It was horrible and made me pretty much lose faith in everything. I know I made it harder than it had to be, but we got through it and it started to open my eyes in so many ways.
- For the people who helped me and my family through the experience of being laid off. You never really understand how incredibly generous people are until you need them.
- For my current employer. I don’t mention that stuff by name here, but I can’t help but be thankful. I work hard and earn my keep, but there are so many things I take for granted there. Because they chose to employ me, I can do a lot of amazing things for my family and other people.
- For the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who helped me to believe that just because things have been a certain way for a long time, they don’t have to be that way. Also, they embarrassed the Yankees.
- For the Florida Writer’s Association, which have helped me along in this craft and put me in position to be successful in the future.
- For Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting, which have helped my son learn things he doesn’t even know he knows right now, and have helped him become the person he is.
- For synchronized swimming, which taught my daughter the value of working at something and getting better at it. It taught her lessons that have spurred a lot of her growth to today.
- For the new things I’ve tried over the years, that I never thought I would like. For instance, a Cuban sandwich, which is as amazing at the Mexican food in Phoenix and the pizza in Chicago and the chili at Hard Times Cafe around DC.
- For the people who’ve given me second, third, and so-on chances through the years. Thank you. And I hope that I can do the same for others.
- For finding my fitness. Holy cow, I can’t imagine life without the things I’ve accomplished and learned through that. I’ve brought it, dug deep, did my best, and forgotten the rest.
- For Tough Mudder. I love the pledge and it’s also helped me to realize how much I can still accomplish. And I’ve gotten some really cool t-shirts.
- For my writerly friends who helped me believe I wasn’t just pretending and still do.
- For the people I work with, and they know who they are, who have re-enforced the fact that hell is the place where you don’t need any help.
- For my current church, which is really amazing in its message and outreach. When we left the previous place, it felt like a gaping hole. Now I see it for the blessing it was. It’s been great.
To limit this to 51 is to exclude a lot of things that should be here, but this was an amazing exercise.