Need to be Thankful

We know by now some of my best ideas come to me in the middle of a dark cold night. It is 4:40AM and I have lit the fireplace because our house heat is not able to keep up with the cold outside. Brian is in bed sleeping and Princess is laying by the fire and all I have to do today is make cranberries and brussel sprouts and show up at my sisters this afternoon. I will watch the Macy's Day parade with the same excitement that an avid football viewer watches the commercials during the Super Bowl. I love to watch before hand the Broadway actors performances and of course the bands. Just a small local plug, Tarpon High School's band made the big trip to NYC this year. Congrats to them. This is one of the days they will always remember.

Last night on my last break before Thanksgiving I was in the break room because it was too cold to go outside and walk a couple laps around the parking garage. So I sat down and on the tv as usual was HGTV. Here is another episode of people looking to purchase a new home and the journey through the process. Yeah right. I do not know anyone who would qualify to be on the show. Tonight's episode brings us to Suburban somewhere in the US and the husband is a computer engineer and the wife is a radiologist. Does that even happen in real life. I thought the husband works retail and the wife works in a call center. Oh that must be a different show.

So this not so normal couple and their 2.5 kids that each need their own bedroom and we need a Master Suite are looking for their new home with a budget of $800,000. This must be a dream because our little household will take about 10 years to earn that amount of money. So off we go now remember I am only on a 15 minute break.

The first house is a colonial over 5,000 square feet. For those of you that are normal and have no idea how large that is, when I worked for Eckerd the average store was 10,000 square feet. So you now can understand how they need that kind of space for their family of almost 6. Back to show. As they walk in they notice the beautiful grand entryway and staircase. In my house this is the called the front door and front step. In the old days the stoop. We are noticing the woodwork and as we head into the formal dining room again the fine workmanship and large room would be perfect for seating a State Dinner. Now it is almost time for me to get up and bam they walk into a kitchen that is bigger than my living room and it is gorgeous. Beautiful cabinets, appliances enough counter space for 10 cooks and an island that could be used for a stage in a Broadway production and the first thing out of the woman's mouth is I do not like these counter tops. We need granite. Now I am done. I watch and I realize tv is unrealistic even this so called reality tv. But here is what got me she said she "NEEDED GRANITE COUNTER TOPS".  Let me say it again so it can sink in she NEEDED GRANITE COUNTER TOPS. Well I look over at the lady that is there on most of my breaks and I said she may NEED rice to eat but she does not NEED granite counter tops. This lady on tv has no idea what she actually needs. Now back to the phones.

So just so you know I am not crazy a customer tonight's modem would not power on. No power, no internet that simple. We have very few but we did have a tech available on Thanksgiving for the emergency but it is not until 4-6 pm. I set the appointment because I knew as this lady yelled at me about how she could not possibly be expected to spend Thanksgiving day without internet I knew that time slot could disappear before reality set in and she realized the only other option was waiting until Friday afternoon. I listened and tried to be sympathetic to her needs but in the end she wanted a supervisor because I could not help her.

I continue to think about the show and this customer the same way I do every time I watch that stuff on tv. How shallow have we as a people become?  I understand that watching a show like this on tv is like going to the movies and seeing some block buster movie that cost millions of dollars to make so that the actor can have a new trailer and fresh water from particular ravine in some tropical rain forest to drink and only bananas from the rarest of trees to snack on but come on people. Do we have no sense of reality anymore.

Just 60 years ago you would have on Thanksgiving gotten up in your humble abode and maybe lit a fire in the fireplace and gathered all the family together in one house and made a dinner fit for a king. Your mom in her pearls and apron would have slaved over a hot stove and not gotten a single spot on her dress and at the end of the night prepared herself a drink and kicked off her high heels. But not every house had Barbara Billingsley cooking dinner. Again, please look it up. I loved Leave It to Beaver and if you don't know who June and Ward Cleaver are and Eddie Haskell and my favorite character Judy. The little busy body girl in the Beave's class that was in every one's business. Oh yeah. My high school PE teacher referred to me as Judy. And in the show the teacher or parent would always correct her and say Judy, Judy, Judy. I might have been her a little bit. Ok. A lot. It was the 80's and it was high school. I digress. Anyway it is worth the 30 minutes and you may even get a cavity from watching because everything is so sweet.

Now of course June Cleaver was not reality either but June did not need Granite Counter tops or a Master Suite with an on Suite for those of you that don't speak 5,000 square foot home that is a bathroom off the master bedroom for just the master of the house and his wife with of course dual sinks and glass shower and Jacuzzi tub. Here I go again. We never got to the bathroom I am not sure how unrealistic her needs were there.

But I do have a point to this. We do not need Granite counter tops or Jacuzzi tubs. We do not need dual sinks in our master bathroom. We need to put food in our belly each day so that we have the energy to get up and do our job to the best of our ability. We need a roof over our heads that keeps out the cold wind and the rain.  Most of us need some mode of transportation to get to and from work and the grocery store. And we need a job to earn the money to purchases these things "We need".

We also need to be Thankful that we live in a country that we are free to eat with whomever we choose and we do not have worry that the native people of this land will kill us on the way to grandma's because they do not understand why we are here on their land and taking their food and women without asking.We can gather together outside knowing the police will not come and make us break up our gathering. We can go to church where ever we wish and pray to whomever we choose. It is not state run. We do not have to hide our religious choices.  We can even light our menorah and have our Thanksgiving dinner at the same time. Why because we live in the United States. A place where for over the last 390 years we have been able to gather together and celebrate the harvest and our bounty the good weather of the summer has brought us. And that as two different peoples they were able to help each other survive another year and prepare for a long cold dark winter with enough food and seeds in the root cellar and smoked meat to survive again until the spring thaw and they can plan next years crop. I know everyone does not believe my version of the first Thanksgiving but I know the English would not have survived without the help of the Indians in this new land so there had to be some give and take in the relationship.

As you sit down this afternoon with whomever you are close to and eat your meal of plenty with leftovers to last until Sunday. Please remember to be Thankful for the the things that you have that are way, way, way beyond your needs.  And tonight and tomorrow when you go shopping be kind to the retail employees who are working so they can provide for the needs and wants of their families as you purchase your Christmas gifts for the ones you love and yourself. Do not fight over the last big screen tv. It is not the last loaf of bread and your family will not go hungry without it. Be kind to each other on the road and in the parking lot. The parking space closest to the door of the mall with the handicapped sign is not for you unless you are truly handicapped. You can walk off that dinner as you cross the parking lot.

I am thankful today for all that I have which is more than I need. And my family that is here and far away and those that have passed on. I am thankful for my friends who like the Pilgrims and the Indians all celebrate our bountiful harvest and prepare for long cold winter in Florida. Well you know. I am thankful I live in Florida too.

Happy Thanksgiving

Giving Thanks

I thought it appropriate this week that I speak of Thanksgiving. Now most of you reading this will sit down at some point on Thursday and eat the biggest meal of year so far. And most will say some sort of prayer of Thanks for the things you have and food on the table and the hands that prepared it. My father always mentions the men and women serving in the Armed Services that are not home with their family.  And then dig in. But maybe this week on this Thursday stop and be thankful for how blessed you are to maybe have a job and if not a job how thankful you are to be with your family, maybe even have a roof over your head.

As a reminder it has been only 19 days since Hurricane Sandy made an unexpected visit to our friends to the north in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other states upon the Eastern Seaboard. Some of those visited no longer have homes to be thankful for. They have their life to be thankful for. They may not have electricity or hot water but they still have their family together. Some may have lost family members but they still have the clothes on their back and a warm meal to eat being prepared by volunteers. In other words some people lost everything just 19 days ago. They are trying to find a way to get through each day, each week and the months to come without loosing their mind.

Hurricane Sandy is just one example of the tragic loss that people from all walks of life all over the world have dealt with this this year. But from the tragedy we are able to look at and appreciate the smaller things in life that we just assume we will always have.

I have a friend in New York that has invited friends over that live in lower Manhattan and let them charge their wireless devices, offered a hot shower and meal before they go back to living as those who lived in the same part of New York in the early 1900's with the advantage of batteries to power their handheld devices to warm their hands while the power is out and the temperature is low by the glow of their ipod or tablet. A laptop you no longer put a pillow on your lap to protect from the heat you can use it to warm your lap.

So maybe on Thursday evening when you are sitting home after eating a delicious meal prepared with love by someone you don't know how you would live without. Turn off the lights and the tv and the heat and think of the people up north that are doing the same thanks to Sandy for 5 minutes. First you will realize how long that is to be without, but remember those still without power have been doing the same for 19 days. Some may have days or weeks to come before the smallest luxury electricity can be restored. When you turn the lights and the tv back on remember that is a blessing because those without do not have that choice. They will wake up Friday not at 4AM preparing to go shopping because the retail world tells us we can get a better price before the sun comes up. Some will wake up cold and alone but being thankful for what they have left and to those that are truly blessed they are not worrying about what they lost for that can not be regained.

No loss this great can truly be recovered from overnight. Life goes on and each day, each moment is living proof that you too are trying to move on as well. You will not forget what you lost but maybe build a future that you never expected out of it. A future that has love and family and a home just not the one you thought about on October 28th for those in the north or for those in Aurora, Colorado July 19th or those in Gilbert, Arizona on May 1st. I could go on and on. About people and their tragedy which may not be a loss that had media coverage but a loss of a job or a loss of a spouse or a Grandmother or even a cat. All of these losses are tragic to those that lived through them and the recovery though the time may be different the process is still the same. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. They do not always come in order or one at a time but no matter what you do they will come.

On Thursday hug your family and remind them all how much they all matter. And be thankful what you have been given and accept what you have lost.

Happy Thanksgiving has a whole new meaning now.