My friends who read these stories will all be waking up this morning of Thanksgiving and probably turning on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade spectacle with all the attendant celebrity hosts and various musical numbers from all the latest Broadway hits, performed in the cold and wet of the day on the street in front of Macy’s flagship store on Herald Square. They will be spending their morning preparing for whatever Thanksgiving dinner plans they may have. Some will be heading off to be guests of some family or friends, while others will be cooking and sweating the culinary delights that they inherited from their parents and family members and that everyone pretends they really enjoy, whether that’s so or not. For the first time since I can remember, we are “skipping” Thanksgiving altogether by traveling by Steam Train on that day from London to Edinburgh in order to enjoy the Christmas Markets of Edinburgh. Since this was all Kim’s idea, and then we enlisted Gary & Oswaldo to tack this escapade on to the end of their latest month-long European extravaganza…and then we were joined, much to our surprise and pleasure, by our Vermont friends Frank & Barbara, we feel responsible for keeping everyone away from their turkey dinners. So, just for fun, I have bought Thanksgiving funny party glasses with features like turkey legs protruding upward or big turkey feathers spread out across the brow. It should be worth a few holiday chuckles and probably not a few groans from the surrounding Brits and Europeans on the train with us. I bought a package with about a dozen of these silly adornments, so I expect we will hand out the extras to other Americanos on the train in an attempt to generate some fun among the passengers. I give it low odds that this will get contentious, but you never know these days when our American “currency” overseas has been so greatly devalued by the current Trumpian shenanigans and disregard for anyone not carrying an American passport (and even some who do!). We’ll see how that all plays out.
While Gary & Oswaldo will head home after London/Edinburgh, Frank & Barbara will also join us for a few days in Prague before we all head back stateside. This is turning out to feel like a very quick trip since it will be three nights in London, three nights in Edinburgh and three nights in Prague. I suspect that will be enough Christmas Markets for me, but I am sure Kim has a lot more shopping stamina than I do. We have all the cold weather gear we will need…I hope…and just this morning I texted Kim a clipped version of the weather forecast for all the days we are in each city. It looks like we will get rain in London (where’s the surprise in that), off and on rain in Edinburgh, and clear but quite cold weather in Prague. I have my new black/grey heavy coat (I chose the one that happens to have concealed carry holsters for several handguns and ammo clips, which I plant to play up for some good value fun…not with the TSA crowd). I have my black and grey Hutkonig Regensburg fedora for effect and the coldest days. And I have my black leather gloves because I suspect it will be chilly enough to warrant them. I have swapped out undershirts for thermal Alaskan Headgear synthetic long-sleeved undershirts (usually reserved for motorcycle trips). And I even have on a new Izod tan/grey fleece vest. So to say I feel ready for the seasonality of the trip as well as the countrified venues where we will be wandering, would be an understatement.
During the Uber ride to the airport today, I engaged the driver in a discussion of the pros and cons of living in North County San Diego. He too was a transplanted New Yorker and it was a lovefest between us about how great San Diego is as a place to live. I was reminded of how lucky we were to choose this spot to spend our last years…even though we have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon. He went on to suggest that our house is in the nicest spot in North County. Now let’s get serious here. He was a 5-star Uber driver who probably lives on tips, so I make no bones about the bias that that situation may have injected into his objectivity. But it so happens I agree with his observations and don’t completely understand why many others don’t necessarily feel the same way. Everyone always assumes that San Diego means we live somewhere between La Jolla and Oceanside along the lovely coastline…or at least in Rancho Santa Fe if we prefer some distance from the beach. Don’t get me wrong, those are all lovely places to live and I’m sure we would e thrilled to live there, but I am strangely happier that we happened to find a spot that isn’t in the normal upscale areas and is rather somewhat “hidden” as the name Hidden Meadows implies. And even there, we think we are in the nicest enclave of Hidden Meadows where we get all the hidden benefits and still get the ocean views off in the distance. To us, that’s the perfect blend.
I have long realized that my mind is wired to feel that whatever path I take is the best path and all choices I make are the best choices. It’s a blessing whether it is always as objectively truthful as it could be or not. It allows me to always feel good in the moment and there are few things better than that. Kim and I spend an inordinate amount of time sitting across from one another in our respective living room seats telling each other how lucky we both are and happy we both are. Is that a bad thing? I know it feels somewhat insular, but neither of us is exactly immune or oblivious to the ills of the world, its just that we are both blessed with upbeat attitudes about life (recent bad teaching and performing evaluations notwithstanding). I have had many readers write or comment that they are sorry we both had those bad evals. But let’s get real here people. We have a great life and we know and appreciate that. We try to err on the side of good versus evil, but that only makes us feel even better.
A good friend from high school, Brent, who live in L.A. just sent me a great clip called The Tale of Two Wolves. It so moved me that I wanted to reproduce it here on thanksgiving for you.
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, forgiveness, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
More than anything, that story makes me want to remember the importance of feeding the right wolf and giving thanks again this Thanksgiving…even while in the English Midlands with a pair of turkey glasses on.