I woke up this Thanksgiving morning and made a list of the first 100 things that came to my mind when I thought of what I’m grateful for this particular Thanksgiving 2020. Your list will not be the same. And that’s okay. HAPPY THANKSGIVING and I’m looking forward to seeing you on the other side of the pandemic.
Wife
Kids
Pixie the cat
House
Savings
Berkeley
Friendships
Doctors, nurses, and front-line workers during the pandemic
Doctorate
Ongoing Work
Ongoing publishing opportunities
Ongoing ability/freedom to write scripts
Ongoing time to work on some good causes, especially green causes
The people who work so hard, getting no credit, on those causes
Joe Biden’s anti-drama disposition
Great neighbors who I’m truly friends with
Social media fun
Extended family – cousins and such
November 2019 trip to Maui which has lingered well
February 2020 trip to Disneyworld which has lingered well
Burritos
Sushi
Indian food
Ethiopian food
Dogs, generally
My health, mostly
R’s ongoing smarts (these days, he asks for me to quiz him on division, like I’m supposed to ask “what’s 39 divided by 3?”)
R having real friends now
Entirely new electrical work/panel we paid for this year
Hot tub we got on our back porch this year (keeping Dar happy)
Entirely new tile floor we put in studio and laundry room this year
Solar panels we got this year
Walks in Tilden
San Francisco, generally
Scuba diving and all that is
The Nitrox scuba certificate I got this year
All the physical therapy I did this year to fix my arm – and it worked!
Any and all help with autism, including websites
Dar can swim
Although I now have tinnitus it’s not THAT bad – grateful it’s not worse
Word Blitz, a Boggle game I started playing this year
Thursday poker night with friends
Sunday game night (free games) with friends
The relative grace of most people during this pandemic
Hammock
Trees, including those I planted this year
Front and back garden that I planted or maintained this year
My parents and all they did to make my life so easy/lovely
The mixed-blessing luck of not having to care for a parent during the pandemic
Wife’s organizational and budget skills
My iPhone, generally
My new site/podcast, bestlovedfilms – it’s going well!
The NYT, the WaPo, and the WSJ (we pay for all)
Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, AppleTV, Amazon, HBOMax, Peacock (we also pay for all that, but something has to change there)
Movies, generally
Music, generally
Literature, generally
Museum-level art, generally
Studying history, generally
Red hair and red beard, cause it’s fun and not yet gray
Older friends, because I love connecting to the past
Melatonin – never took it before this year, it’s great!
Hot showers
Newer nature documentaries in HD
The little cylinder pillow under my pillow now
Leaf-filled branches waving in, and dappling, sunlight
Beaches near us
Getting rid of my car this year – great move! (Now we have one car, not two)
The lemons from our lemon tree
R’s dedicated teachers/school in the midst of this pandemic
Sleep, when it happens
Parasite winning at the Oscars, cause that was awesome
Showing certain beloved movies to R (not Parasite)
Scientists and all their hard work
This coming vaccine?!
Speaking Spanish
The NBA, especially this year
Anyone and everyone who reads this blog
My wife’s job and its flexibility
My friends’ dreams and goals
Laptop
Dill on fish, because you literally cannot have too much
New glasses – now I can see distances
Ben & Jerry’s ice cream before bed
White privilege
The luck that most non-whites prefer justice to revenge
Cookies
My meager cooking skills, which come in handy this week
Zoos
The National Park system
My mother and father and all they did
Dar’s daily therapist, she knows who she is
Dar’s psychiatrist
Dar’s teacher at his school
Dar’s neurologist
Not getting COVID, so far
Heater-warmed socks on a cold evening
Hot-water-warmed cloth on my face, anytime
Peace, love, and understanding, generally
The space and time to do things like write this list on Thanksgiving morning
