MOTUS A.D.: Thanksgiving 2016

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Thanksgiving 2016

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

This has been, to say the least, an interesting year – in the Chinese curse sense of the word. There have been moments of sadness and joy, despair and hope. Some of our MOTI family have suffered great personal losses - spouses, parents, family members, and beloved companions - both the 2 and 4 legged variety. Some have lost, and found, jobs. Many have faced health issues and suffered through protracted rehab and recovery. Several have relocated across great distances to restart their lives. And we’ve all suffered through the stress of a truly unprecedented election. While Trump was not the first choice of many of us, here we are, two weeks after the election, universally supportive and hopeful that maybe - just maybe - he really will help us make America great again.

And so today we shall take a small pause in the action to remember and be thankful for all we have: for friends and family, the talents we’ve been given, the opportunities we’ve been offered and the work we were able to do to take advantage of them.

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank each of you who gather here to share, cajole, question, educate and entertain us all. You’ve made the past 8 years just fly by. Well okay, no; it’s actually seemed a lifetime, butt that’s not your fault. So thank you all, whether you were a charter member to the MOTI or have just recently joined the elite group of preeminent thinkers who gather here on a daily basis. May your Thanksgivings be filled with all the turkey, dressing, gravy and pie you could possibly want – plus leftovers for a late night snack.

In closing I would like to add my annual MOTUS Thanksgiving prayer:

In addition to all the other blessings

you have conferred on my reflective frame

I wish to thank you, Lord,

for the companionship of steadfast comrades

whose wit and wisdom and strength

help steer me through these tempestuous seas

of flattery and lies churned to fury by the ill will of demagogues.

And this year I thank you for sending us a warrior to restore steadiness to our Republic.

Amen.