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Gratitude
I am American, and being so have grown up with today, Thanksgiving Day. As a child and teenager it really meant food, wonderful food, which to my family was rare and special. My parents, on a slim margin with four children, did not fund our weekday meals with bounty, though we never were hungry. So, you can imagine the FEAST of a day where food ruled and there was bounty enough to go back to for DAYS. I was truly thankful for the food I felt deprived of the rest of the year - and so in my waistline it showed. I binge ate, sneaked food and otherwise sent my body reeling in and out of shock far into adulthood. It is only, in fact, in the last few years that I have managed to eat normally most of the time. Though give me stress and give me ice cream, and pints of it! The way one starts eating in life is not easily changed! I'm really off track here though, the point of my post today is to say that along with how I eat has changed over these past three years so my reasons for celebrating Thanksgiving have altered dramatically. Today, the twenty-fourth day of November, 2005, I will have a lovely dinner at a small restaurant in New York's Midtown, and the one pumpkin pie attests to the fact we are not food centered today. So, what has changed and why? Six years of the GOP and Mr. Bush shredding our countries honor and dignity, pre-emptive war, a never ending 'war' on terror, (we cannot be eternally at war; terrorism, however horrible, is simply now a fact of life for America now as well as the rest of the world), devestation to thirty years of pro-enviorenment legislation - and most terrifying of all a new Supreme Court which appears set to limit severely our American right to privacy. Our government seems to insist it has a right to be in our beds, whether at home or in hospice and all points in between. The Patriot Act and Homeland Security have slashed and discarded Habeus Corpus and even America citizens must fear reprisal for speaking out against this administartion's actions. Though these Republicans state they are defending America's values they viscerate the Constitution with the religious rights' activism and propose to ammend this sacred document with the first segregation of American citizens from full participation in civil rights, my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, since the abolition of slavery and equality for our African American citizens. Incredible evil afoot, indeed: far less in Iraq than here at home. Our separation of Church and State at risk as never before, 51% of our population supporting a president who allows torture of our prisoners and attempts to justify such action. A Christian majority which has forgotton Christ's words, relying rather on the Old Testamnet and their pick and choose of its passages to attack selectively those who disagree with them, including our Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters. I am hardly thankful for any of this today! What am I thankful for today? Well, the possibility of change in our country, God willing, but something more personal. I'm thankful for my lovely daughter, Joy Belin, who has been incredible in her support of her Father and me through these last two years of illness and finacial crisis. Her maturity and love, her lack of complaints and her positive verbal and even financial help are so meaningful to me. I am grateful for my husband, partner and love, Mark, who has been my support and the other part of me for almost eighteen years now. His ability to ride the storms of our many trials, not least of all my depression, and certainly his broken back are inspirations to me and teach me more about honor and faithfulness than anything I've known . I love and thank them both. Lastly, I thank our dear Lord for His blessing of a new chance to rebuild our lives here in New York. It is difficult, I find, to move once again and start over. I am aging and dramatic change holds far less charm and excitement than it often has before, but I am firmly and honestly grateful for this great gift. It is said that man needs love and work. We have both again. Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!
I am American, and being so have grown up with today, Thanksgiving Day. As a child and teenager it really meant food, wonderful food, which to my family was rare and special. My parents, on a slim margin with four children, did not fund our weekday meals with bounty, though we never were hungry. So, you can imagine the FEAST of a day where food ruled and there was bounty enough to go back to for DAYS. I was truly thankful for the food I felt deprived of the rest of the year - and so in my waistline it showed. I binge ate, sneaked food and otherwise sent my body reeling in and out of shock far into adulthood. It is only, in fact, in the last few years that I have managed to eat normally most of the time. Though give me stress and give me ice cream, and pints of it! The way one starts eating in life is not easily changed! I'm really off track here though, the point of my post today is to say that along with how I eat has changed over these past three years so my reasons for celebrating Thanksgiving have altered dramatically. Today, the twenty-fourth day of November, 2005, I will have a lovely dinner at a small restaurant in New York's Midtown, and the one pumpkin pie attests to the fact we are not food centered today. So, what has changed and why? Six years of the GOP and Mr. Bush shredding our countries honor and dignity, pre-emptive war, a never ending 'war' on terror, (we cannot be eternally at war; terrorism, however horrible, is simply now a fact of life for America now as well as the rest of the world), devestation to thirty years of pro-enviorenment legislation - and most terrifying of all a new Supreme Court which appears set to limit severely our American right to privacy. Our government seems to insist it has a right to be in our beds, whether at home or in hospice and all points in between. The Patriot Act and Homeland Security have slashed and discarded Habeus Corpus and even America citizens must fear reprisal for speaking out against this administartion's actions. Though these Republicans state they are defending America's values they viscerate the Constitution with the religious rights' activism and propose to ammend this sacred document with the first segregation of American citizens from full participation in civil rights, my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, since the abolition of slavery and equality for our African American citizens. Incredible evil afoot, indeed: far less in Iraq than here at home. Our separation of Church and State at risk as never before, 51% of our population supporting a president who allows torture of our prisoners and attempts to justify such action. A Christian majority which has forgotton Christ's words, relying rather on the Old Testamnet and their pick and choose of its passages to attack selectively those who disagree with them, including our Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters. I am hardly thankful for any of this today! What am I thankful for today? Well, the possibility of change in our country, God willing, but something more personal. I'm thankful for my lovely daughter, Joy Belin, who has been incredible in her support of her Father and me through these last two years of illness and finacial crisis. Her maturity and love, her lack of complaints and her positive verbal and even financial help are so meaningful to me. I am grateful for my husband, partner and love, Mark, who has been my support and the other part of me for almost eighteen years now. His ability to ride the storms of our many trials, not least of all my depression, and certainly his broken back are inspirations to me and teach me more about honor and faithfulness than anything I've known . I love and thank them both. Lastly, I thank our dear Lord for His blessing of a new chance to rebuild our lives here in New York. It is difficult, I find, to move once again and start over. I am aging and dramatic change holds far less charm and excitement than it often has before, but I am firmly and honestly grateful for this great gift. It is said that man needs love and work. We have both again. Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!
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