Thanksgiving. My thoughts.

 

Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow. I plan on getting together with some of the family for lunch — where I come from we call lunch “dinner” and the evening meal “supper.” Our meal will happen in my old hometown and in the house where I was raised.

Although Thanksgiving is rooted in religion, as in “giving thanks to God,” it has become a secular or even capitalist occasion.

I am thankful for a number of things, not really in a religious sense, but thankful nonetheless. One particular hope I have is that people can pray — or not if they wish — for all people living in peace. It’s always amazed me how some people who claim they are religious are in reality bloodthirsty, two-faced, liars. There are also others who are likewise pious yet they mock or become inflamed when it comes to people of certain religions. Case in point: Muslims today are the new pariahs. At the same time, certain people who claim Allah as their God pretend their Islamic religiosity is so deep that they believe it gives them the right to kill by the thousands men, women and children of their own faith. Oh they especially feel they have some special dispensation from Allah to kill all of those who are not Muslim.

I have several things to be thankful for, in whatever way I choose. My selection isn’t at all heady especially considering what I have just written on capitalism, religion and war. There are some things I will not share here. But, for instance, I still have my sense of humor.

Increasingly, I find that times when I “laugh my ass off,” a.k.a. in our Facebook world as LMAO. Maybe I don’t read the comics enough although what was the “funny papers” aren’t as funny as they used to be. But I am certainly thankful for Stephan Pastis, who produces the “Pearls Before Swine,” comic. His strip isn’t always funny as sometimes he makes some profound thoughts about life in this world. Maybe it isn’t funny but it is important.

Despite its shortcomings and its delivery of stupidity throughout the world I am thankful for the Internet. Facebook is surprisingly high in my book because one can communicate with people, or vice versa, that you might not otherwise contact. Google and other search engines, can lead me to various sites where I can find people, places and things. Google=Good noun.

I am also happy that I took a week of leave and made a trip for several days to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Perhaps it is a “redneck Riveria,” but I didn’t really go to Biloxi, Gulfport and Ocean Springs (and Long Beach and Bay St. Louis) to gamble or frolic in the Gulf.

My journey there was a trip back in time. Those were my days as a young Navy man when I was 19-turned-21 was spent there. It was a laid back time 1974-77. I went to sea in ’77 and was able to get out of the Navy back in Gulfport in 1978. This visit I went to the base and saw my barracks was still standing since the 70s. Some of the places I knew were gone or new places were standing. Some signs of Hurricane Katrina – it was a killer storm for the Mississippi Coast too – were there. And even though about a dozen casinos were open, the area wasn’t too much of a surprise.

Back when I was stationed at the Naval Construction Training Center, on the Gulfport Seabee base, was the time of transition from teenage kid to young man. It was, despite whatever shortcomings I felt about life back then, a fantastic part of my life. It was the 70s. I saw ZZ Top and the Rolling Stones, man! My uniform didn’t prohibit my having fun. Well, maybe sometime it did. My year at sea is another chapter.

I turned 60 last month. I don’t see 30 or even 40 years ago as a lifetime, although for some it really is a lifetime. Whether you are religious or not, whether you pray or not, you can be thankful for something, just be happy. I’m not going to say “don’t worry.” LMAO