Show notes
Welcome to the 101st episode of Giving Back Insights! Insights is our solo show to celebrate how our guests and their charities serve others, explore actions each of can take to make a difference in people's lives and connect.
Today we're talking about the impact and importance of Thanks Giving day in our life! Enjoy today's episode and keep your comments and feedback coming.
Key Takeaways:
Happy Thanksgiving!
I love Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday, a day to give thanks, to say thank you, to express gratitude. What an awesome, optimistic idea. How do you get more American than that?
Jon Carroll was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle who retired a few years ago. While he was not as well known as Herb Caen and his three-dot journalism, I enjoyed infrequently reading Jon's funny, empathetic, and oftentimes insightful columns. His very best writing was about his granddaughter Lauren, which was primarily about his own self-discovery.
Every year Jon would reprint a slightly updated version of a Thanksgiving column he wrote many years ago. The first time I read it, I felt he captured the spirit of the holiday so well in his own quirky way that I made it part of my own annual celebration. I've always wanted to share it with a group of friends so that's exactly what I'm going to do today.
Before I read Jon's column, I'm gonna count me some blessings. I say some because I have an absurdly abundant life and I've forgotten more awesomeness from the last year alone than most people have in a decade. So I'm gonna give thanks for some big stuff from 2018, especially the people who made it magic.
First off is my awesome family. Ursula, Carson, Tyler and Rachel, you made my heart sing and the sun shine. I am extraordinarily blessed that you are in my life and I love you with everything I have and am. Thank you for being patient with me when I fall short of being the best version of myself, and know that I will always love you, I will always be here for you, and I will always tell you the truth.
Mom, thanks for being a part of our lives. I appreciate everything you do for me and our family. I treasure our time together and I'll keep doing things that show you how I feel.
Tom, thank you for choosing to come back into my life. I cherish the time we spend together and I look forward to growing old side by side with you. Kevin Adler, Nancy Erhard and Miracle Messages, thank you for giving me back my brother. Bill Verity, thank you for sharing your family story and encouraging me in just the right way to take the extra step that Tom and I needed. Midori, thanks for being your genuine, one of a kind self.
My dear friend Swami said that I had a life defining time around May, just about the time I went to New Mexico and met Sherry Watson. She opened my eyes to the possibilities of working in my natural role as a connector in the non profit space.
The Freedym Mastermind in Los Angeles, led by the all-out 80's man Ryan Lee was remarkably painful and powerful. 30 people, none of whom I'd met in person before, recognizing my energy and encouraging me to play in a space big enough for the impact. And of course, the lovely Alannah Avelin and Jamie Moran, two very deep souls who are always pushing me to get to my biggest space.
Teresa deGrosBois, Cecilia Thomas and Ricky Goodall, thank you for reframing giving, receiving, and asking. Nicola, Chris and the Podfly crew, thanks for keeping the podcast going. Callum Crowe, thank you for your work on our book in progress, we'll get there! Krista Gawronski and Lynne Moquete, thank you for your friendship and example.
Looking back at my guests for 2018 and seeing the roll call of amazing people doing incredible things for their community, I'm blown away by their powerful compassion. Think about it: it starts with a feeling that something's wrong. Then an idea to DO something. Then action to help someone, one person. And after time, with consistent, persistent effort, they've made a difference in many lives directly and multiples of that in the ripple effect. I'm honored, and in awe, and I appreciate all of our listeners who've chosen to make the Giving Back Podcast part of your life. Mahalo.
To finish off, I'll go back to the start. Ursula, Carson, Tyler and Rachel, thank you for making my life wonderful. You're the first thing I think of in the morning, and the last thing in my heart when I go to sleep.
And now, without further ado:
"A Song of Thanks" by Jon Carroll
A while back I wrote a Thanksgiving column that everyone seemed to like, so I've reprinted it annually ever since. A few years ago, I wrote another Thanksgiving column, but this ain't it. This is the original, slightly updated:
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It is comfortably free of the strident religious and/or militaristic overtones that give the other holidays their soft emanations of uneasiness.
At Christmas, for instance, we are required to deal with the divinity of Christ — I know some of you folks have made up your minds about that one, but not me — and on the Fourth of July we must wrestle with the question of whether all those simulated aerial bombardments represent the most useful form of nationalism available.
At Thanksgiving, all we have to worry about is whether we can wholeheartedly support (A) roasted turkey, (B) friends and (C) gratitude. My opinions on these matters are unambiguous; I am in favor of them all. The Squanto-give-corn stuff has been blessedly eliminated from the iconography, so the thrill of Thanksgiving is undiminished by caveats, codicils or carps. That alone is something to be thankful for.
Thanksgiving provides a formal context in which to consider the instances of kindness that have enlightened our lives, the moments of grace that have gotten us through when all seemed lost. These are fine and sentimental subjects for contemplation.
Let us start this year by remembering the members of the media who travel to distant lands to bring back the story. They cover wars and famines and deadly disease outbreaks, all at considerable risk to themselves. They do what is necessary, not what is popular. They're almost unknown until one of them gets beheaded. I am grateful for their courage and their commitment to truth.
And I am grateful for the teachers, the men and women who took the time to fire a passion for the abstract, to give us each a visceral sense of the continuity of history and the adventure of the future. Our society seems determined to denigrate its teachers — at its peril, and at ours. This is their day as well.
Even closer. Companions. We all learned about good sex from somebody, and that person deserves a moment. Somebody taught us some hard lesson of life, told us something for our own good, and that willingness to risk conflict for friendship is worth a pause this day. And somebody sat with us through one long night, and listened to our crazy talk and turned it toward sanity; that person has earned this moment too.
And a moment for old friends now estranged, victims of the flux of alliances and changing perceptions. There was something there once, and that something is worth honoring as well.
Our parents, of course, and our children; our grandparents and our grandchildren. We are caught in the dance of life with them and, however tedious that dance can sometimes seem, it is the music of our lives. To deny it is to deny our heritage and our legacy.
And thanks, too, for all the past Thanksgivings, and for all the people we shared them with. Thanks for the time the turkey fell on the floor during the carving process; for the time Uncle Benny was persuaded to sing "Peg o' My Heart"; for the time two strangers fell in love, and two lovers fell asleep, in front of the fire, even before the pumpkin pie.
And the final bead on the string is for this very Thanksgiving, this particular Thursday, and the people with whom we will be sharing it. Whoever they are and whatever the circumstances that have brought us together, we will today be celebrating with them the gift of life and the persistence of charity in a world that seems bent on ending one and denying the other.
Thanks. A lot.
Thanks, Jon. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Remember: Always err on the side of love & kindness.
Love & Gratitude,
Rob
Facebook Live:
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Mentioned in This Episode: Giving Back Podcast
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