Thankful.
Last night my cousin Will and his roommate Gilbert had a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner at their place. Gilbert cooked up probably--no, scratch that, definitely--one of the most elaborate, delicious Thanksgiving spreads I have ever laid my pilgrim eyes on. It made me feel just about as domestic as Ozzy Osborne, and I told Gilbert that should there ever come a day when I have a family depending on me to provide a Thanksgiving dinner, I will most certainly be calling him.
Gilbert and the feast.
Seriously, who makes this many pies? From scratch?
Gilbert and the feast.
Seriously, who makes this many pies? From scratch?In an effort to play the role of the Token Cheesy Person, when we all sat down in the living room to eat, I demanded everyone go around and list one thing they were thankful for. The first person, a guy named Paul who I've met a couple of times now, said "Well, hm. I guess I'm thankful that today is my 10 year anniversary of being cancer free." We all kind of looked back and forth from one to another and someone said "What kind of cancer?" Paul responded "Brain. Brain cancer." More awkward Debbie Downer thoughts and so I said to the guy sitting next to him, "Okay. Top that."
Everyone proceeded to go around and say one thing they were thankful for, a hodge podge of new jobs and PhD candidacy exams and promotions and friends and family -- typical slices of the pie that makes up twentysomething and thirtysomething year-olds lives. I ended up being the last to go and suddenly found myself at a loss for words. What am I thankful for?
I jokingly said, "Can I be thankful for the Internet?" and everyone kind of nodded and agreed, the Generation X/Yers momentarily imagining what their lives and jobs and PhD candidacy exams would be without the Internet. But I continued to think, trying to come up with something more substantial than my meta life.
"Larry Joe Doherty," I finally said. Everyone looked at me like I was insane. A few people in the crowd had heard of him -- a lot of them work in politics or at the Capitol -- but this didn't change their somewhat bewildered looks.
I tried to explain myself, why precisely I was thankful for him. I explained what I felt like was a loss in my faith in humanity this year, a sharp downward spiral that resulted in me shutting the door on the news and politics and resigning myself to no longer caring about any of it. I said I was thankful to LJD for relighting my political fire, so to speak, and restoring my faith in the political process. Everyone sort of stopped looking at me strangely, said "Ohhh, okay..." and we moved on.
Today I thought some more about what it is I'm thankful for and I realized there was more to what I was trying to say last night. I became thankful for the truth this year. I really never appreciated honesty -- in a person, in the world, even in myself -- until I came to realize how devastating a lack of honesty is. We live in a painful world, one that is swarming with lies big and small. Sometimes just to get to through the day, we have to lie to ourselves. And that, for lack of a better word, sucks.
In Larry Joe Doherty I see someone who speaks his mind and tells the truth -- no matter how much it could bite him in the ass when put in quotation marks in print next to his name. The world is full of lies and people who will lie to you, but you can't perpetuate the lies by telling another one to yourself.
I'm thankful for the truth.
Everyone proceeded to go around and say one thing they were thankful for, a hodge podge of new jobs and PhD candidacy exams and promotions and friends and family -- typical slices of the pie that makes up twentysomething and thirtysomething year-olds lives. I ended up being the last to go and suddenly found myself at a loss for words. What am I thankful for?
I jokingly said, "Can I be thankful for the Internet?" and everyone kind of nodded and agreed, the Generation X/Yers momentarily imagining what their lives and jobs and PhD candidacy exams would be without the Internet. But I continued to think, trying to come up with something more substantial than my meta life.
"Larry Joe Doherty," I finally said. Everyone looked at me like I was insane. A few people in the crowd had heard of him -- a lot of them work in politics or at the Capitol -- but this didn't change their somewhat bewildered looks.
I tried to explain myself, why precisely I was thankful for him. I explained what I felt like was a loss in my faith in humanity this year, a sharp downward spiral that resulted in me shutting the door on the news and politics and resigning myself to no longer caring about any of it. I said I was thankful to LJD for relighting my political fire, so to speak, and restoring my faith in the political process. Everyone sort of stopped looking at me strangely, said "Ohhh, okay..." and we moved on.
Today I thought some more about what it is I'm thankful for and I realized there was more to what I was trying to say last night. I became thankful for the truth this year. I really never appreciated honesty -- in a person, in the world, even in myself -- until I came to realize how devastating a lack of honesty is. We live in a painful world, one that is swarming with lies big and small. Sometimes just to get to through the day, we have to lie to ourselves. And that, for lack of a better word, sucks.
In Larry Joe Doherty I see someone who speaks his mind and tells the truth -- no matter how much it could bite him in the ass when put in quotation marks in print next to his name. The world is full of lies and people who will lie to you, but you can't perpetuate the lies by telling another one to yourself.
I'm thankful for the truth.
Labels:
Larry Joe Doherty,
Thanksgiving
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This was a very well put together post. It's so funny that you never valued honesty before considering that you are one of the most unabashedly-honest-all-the-time people I know, which I think has a great deal to do with why people enjoy reading your blog.
gossip: I guess I've just always taken it for granted in the past.
And thank you.