poignant

Giving Thanks – Thanksgiving Reader: A New Tradition

Jeff

We had a very good, 90 year old plus friend named Nat who served as the patriarch of our family during Thanksgiving dinner. Each year we asked him to prepare a few words appropriate for a Thanksgiving commemoration with family and friends. For a number of years he would read his newly written words of wisdom. I can’t explain why, but we archived these memories and kept them in a safe place.

Thanksgiving Reader

Now that Nat is no longer with us, each year we read one of his past statements. This has become part of our Thanksgiving tradition. I have written about Seth Godin a number of times on this blog. Seth has been generous and kind enough to make available what may become a new holiday tradition for us.

He has provided a series of thought provoking readings that may be read by individuals or in a responsive format. Here is his post and free download of a Thanksgiving Reader. Even if you don’t read all of it, there are certainly some readings which will draw attention to the real meaning of the day and help focus a family or group of friends on, what I think, is the true meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday; gratitude.

We will be using at least one of the readings at our gathering this year right after Nat’s words! I think you will find the Reader poignant and meaningful.

STATUS QUOtes — 20151125

Jeff

“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You know, all that matters is that the people you love are happy and healthy. Everything else is just sprinkles on the sundae.” — Paul Walker

“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them and it will change your life.” — Amy Poehler

“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” — Winnie the Pooh

 

Don't wait for other people to be loving, giving, compassionate, grateful, forgiving, generous, or friendly... lead the way

 

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STATUS QUOtes — 20151124

Jeff

“To have a great idea, have a lot of them.” — Thomas Edison

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” — Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.” — Aeschylus

“By midlife you are a cranky snowflake of personal history, political opinions and experiential scars. No one will perfectly align with you.” — Michael Grady

 

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STATUS QUOtes — 20151123

Jeff

“Don’t look for your dreams to come true; look to become true to your dreams.” — Michael Beckwith

“His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.” — Lois McMaster Bujold

“Explain your anger, don’t express it and you will immediately open the door to solutions instead of arguments.” — Unknown

“Don’t knock the weather. If it didn’t change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn’t start a conversation.” — Kim Hubbard [corrected attribution 11/24/15 ]

 

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STATUS QUOtes — 20151122

Jeff

“Halfway isn’t all the way, but it’s better than no way.” — John Updike

“We assume others show love the same way we do and if they don’t, we worry it’s not there.” — Unknown

“You specialize in something until one day you find it is specializing in you.” — Arthur Miller

“Sometimes, you have to air your soul out to someone who isn’t legally bound to listen. That’s where friends come in handy, because clergymen judge you and bartenders require a two-drink minimum.” — Michael Grady

 

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STATUS QUOtes — 20151121

Jeff

“The gods too are fond of a joke.” — Aristotle

“If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.” — Warren Buffett

“If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me.” — Jimmy Buffett

“Dentist: A prestidigitator who, putting metal into your mouth, pulls coins out of your pocket.” — Ambrose Bierce

 

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STATUS QUOtes — 20151120

Jeff

“Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.” — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“When one man has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.” — Jacques Cousteau

“It’s not what I feel for you… it’s what I don’t feel for anyone but you.” — Unknown

“I hate small towns because once you’ve seen the cannon in the park there’s nothing else to do.” — Lenny Bruce

 

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STATUS QUOtes — 20151119

Jeff

“When you blame others, you give up the chance to change yourself.” — Don Eduardo García

“Another belief of mine; that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.” — Margaret Atwood

“There is greatness in doing something you hate for the sake of someone you love.” — Shmuley Boteach

“If I ever need a heart transplant, I want his… it’s never been used.” — George Raveling

 

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STATUS QUOtes — 20151118

Jeff

“We are who people think we are.” — David Foster

“Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.” — Omar N. Bradley

“Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.” — H. G. Wells

“Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire?… the one nearest the door of course.” — George Bernard Shaw

 

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