I pestered family and friends this Thanksgiving and Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day with a simple question: what are you thankful for? Responders included my Mom and Dad, my brother Steve, his daughter Elanor and his wife Pamela, who checked in with us on (American) Thanksgiving Day via a Skype video connection from Newfoundland; and my friends Natalie d’Arbeloff, Chris O’Brien, Deb Scott, Phil Coleman, and Beth Adams.
Several people have asked me what I’m thankful for — a fair question. Too many things to count, really, but first and foremost: all of you. Thanks for reading (or listening), thanks for the gift of your presence and for the inspiration of your own example as writers, artists, or citizens of the planet.
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Theme music: “This noise,” by Innvivo (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike licence)
And thanks to you too, Dave.
I’m saving the podcast for later in the day, and looking forward to it immoderately…
Much to look forward to, Lucy. Fabulous stuff, capturing the essence of a family holiday at home and of some terrific people. Completely informal and natural, and no doubt much craft in making it so. Thank you, Dave. You keep getting more and more awe-inspiringly good at this.
Glad you liked it, Jean! I was worried it would seem a little too self-congratulatory, but I guess my mom’s words of concern about other people prevented that.
I did quite a lot of giggling along with Elanor in that, and I’m still smiling about the marsupial bird and the rainbow coloured unicorn poopy.
Like Dave’s mum, I still count blessings to go to sleep but now tend toward more banal things, one of my favourites is to think of a category then find an example beginning with every letter of the alphabet. If that’s going too fast and easily, I do the same thing with the alphabet backwards.
One of the joys of having young children around is that you can feed them all kinds of nonsense and they’ll believe it. Actually, Elanor and my dad (whom she calls Pocky) engage in imaginative play by the hour, more or less as equals — a very special grandparent-grandchild bond.
I thought you’d appreciate hearing how much we value the BBC World Service as a soporific aid here. (Many NPR stations, like ours, carry it in the wee hours.) A friend of mine told me she does the same thing.
Thanks for letting us sit at your family’s Thanksgiving table, Dave, and the glimpse into some other thanks givers.
I’m really thankful for lots more than what I said on this recording but I wanted to be brief. Enjoyed our transatlantic conversation and hope it carries on live some time.
Yeah, I regret telling people to be brief, considering how long-winded (his word) my brother’s litany was! But we’ll get you back on the podcast soon, I hope, and make up for it.
Thanks for this podcast that let us share your Thanksgiving as well as hear the voices of others reflecting on the day. I really enjoyed it.
Thanks, Maria. I’m glad you felt included, and wish you and Charlie could’ve been here in person.
Yep…that’s my humble and modest guy. :) Seriously, though, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing this – almost as if I was there.
And you were! Almost. Next year, I hope.
I’m thankful for the gift of a little girl’s laughter overheard…
Sweet and quirky and so familiar, Dave. Perfect, I’d say.
: )
Glad you liked! Yeah, Elanor’s presence really made this podcast, I’d say.
It was wonderful to be with you and your family over Thanksgiving — at least it felt like I was with you and it even felt like Thanksgiving. (Maybe it’s because today is Groundhog’s Day. (I think the Bill Murray movie has given that holiday a new connotation.))
This is the kind of thing I wanted to do as a kid. I did a lot of it — had a base station and broadcast radio shows to my friends, stuck mics in people’s faces, and published a newspaper for my school chums. Blogging and the Internet is bringing all that back to me now. And you’re a huge inspiration to me. So, yeah, I’m thankful for Dave.
Gosh, thanks. And yeah, I need to somehow find time to do another podcast episode — I’m running out of hours in the day, though. Often don’t even have enough time to read blogs like I should. It’s all too much fun!