Off Center…
Everyone wants something they don’t have.
I’m no different.
I’d really like to have a Gibson F-5 mandolin like Bill Monroe used to play.
Instead I have an old mandolin that’s in such desperate shape that Willie Nelson’s beat-up, hole-filled guitar “Trigger” just sympathetically shakes its head at it when it sees my mandolin walking the streets of Stringville.
But I’m pretty darn happy to have that mandolin. Without it I’d be picking my nose instead of an instrument.
That’s kind of the way I feel about Thanksgiving.
There are times when we wish we think life hasn’t gone our way — our favorite team loses a football game or our preferred candidate loses an election or our tires go flat.
There are plenty of times when we think about the things we wish we had or wouldn’t have lost — whether it’s a brand new flat panel TV or the pretty girl that got away.
Thanksgiving is a time for everyone to take a step back and look at the big picture. Sure everything in life isn’t going to be perfect, but I would say for most of us the positives outweigh the negatives.
For me, the positives are great friends and family.
While I’m writing this before the Thanksgiving holiday, most of you won’t be reading it until after Thanksgiving.
So I’m really looking forward to making the trip to Grand Forks to meet be with my parents at my sister and her fiance’s home for the holiday.
My sister’s fiance is a tremendous cook and will no doubt serve quite the feast and he is a Type A personality, which means I will likely be banned from the kitchen, leaving me an afternoon full of playing cards and watching football.
I like the sounds of that.
I’ve written about it before, but another thing I’m certainly thankful for is my parents being able to move back into their house post-flood.
The last year there have definitely been some times when they’ve counted their headaches and backaches as being much more numerous than their blessings.
But I think Thanksgiving is also a time when they will also be able to take a look at the big picture. Aside from their son being in serious need of a haircut, they’ve got a pretty great family, with a daughter who is getting married within the next year.
And after more than a year in a FEMA trailer, they’re back living in their house.
And I’ll also be able to catch up with some old friends in Grand Forks, whose kids I got to know really well while I worked there over the past year.
I haven’t been able to see much of those young tykes since moving to Rugby, so that’ll be a treat that rivals the pumpkin pie.
Not everyone has friends and family that they are able to spend the holiday with. That can be a bummer and something I’ve rarely had to endure. I hope that those folks will be able to nonetheless focus on the good things they have.
There’s always something to give thanks for, even if it’s just a dusty old junker of a mandolin.