The o’sphere is teeming with gratitude—bloggers and tweeters posting about what they are thankful for. Cue sigh from inner cynic: “I guess I should do one of those, or people will think I’m an ungrateful wretch.” Me: “Well you are thankful.” IC: “Yeah but I’m thankful all the time and this holiday is a sham.” Me: “A sham? Wow, strong word.” IC: “Gluttony and religious consumerism are two of our country’s biggest problems, and p.s. look what we really did to the Indians…it wasn’t all pass the succotash and have another roll.” Me: “So fight the sham aspects by actually giving thanks.” IC: “Shut up you goody-two-shoes.” Me: “You’re overdue to post a new blog anyway. Get over yourself.”
Hi! Some things I am thankful for, in no particular order:
- The beauty of the created world. Yesterday when I got home from NCTE/ALAN, there was a small black and white bird I’d never seen before feeding on the neighbor’s suet thingie. At first I thought it was a baby magpie, but then I saw it had a red spot on its head and have now determined it was a Ladder-backed Woodpecker. It’s so easy to spend my life staring into screens. I’m thankful I live in a place where, if I step outside the door and look around, there’s beauty everywhere.
- Health insurance. My husband broke his foot this year. The bills totaled over $30,000. We paid about $3,000.
- My editor, especially after reading Stephen King’s review of a new Raymond Carver biography in the Times. Man. Jennifer and I had very little time at our ALAN panel to get much in depth, but the gist of it was that she does not “make me” do stuff. She doesn’t give me line edits. She doesn’t rewrite me. She mostly does what King says a good editor does: “…improve the writer’s work by doing a number of useful things: posing questions the writer should have answered and didn’t, suggesting places where the thematic concerns can be reinforced to make a more pleasing whole…An editor should be an expert midwife, not a surrogate parent.”
- My agent, who is a rock and does not let me wallow in the places of feeling small and frightened.
- That I got to go on tour for Once Was Lost, and meet so many great readers and booksellers and librarians and teachers.
- That I’m home now and don’t have to go anywhere for over two months.
- Quality time with other writers who get it. I’ve had some meaningful, memorable conversations in the last year with comrades—you know who you are and I thank you for approaching your work with careful thought and humility.
- Diabetes. There, I said it, I’m thankful for my diabetes, though it is often a discouraging bitch and pain in my ass and fingertips. It forces me to take care of myself and I feel better than I have my whole life.
- Rock and roll.
- That I’m not making a traditional Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow with eighteen courses and thirty hours of cooking. I am making spaghetti and meatballs.
- That we have money with which to purchase groceries.
- My husband. We’ve spent way too much time apart in 2009 and I realized that life is pretty boring without him. I’m thankful that, unlike me, he is generally in a good mood, generous, patient, and tolerant.
- The guy I hired a couple of months ago to clean my house. Yes, I finally did it! It’s changed my life, seriously, just like you all said it would.
- My crazy family, my nutcase friends, and everyone in my life who helps me understand what it means to be fully alive.
- That I could go on and on with this post all day. But I won’t. Happy Thanksgiving!
9 comments for this post
This made me laugh and reminded me of the things I so often overlook when counting my blessings. Happy Thanksgiving :)
Sara, thanks for this list.
I hope you enjoy your spaghetti and meatballs! One of my most memorable Thanksgivings was on the Big Sur coast. After attending NCTE/ALAN in San Franciso, my wife and I headed to Big Sur and did a backpacking trip!
This year it’s turkey at home with close friends, lots to be thankful for.
I am thankful for writers like you, who create wonderful books young people can identify with and enjoy. It makes my job of coaxing teenagers to actually read something much easier.
Sara Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
@Miss_Tammy, Thank you, Miss Tammy. Have a great Thanksgiving.
I hope I count as one of your nutcase friends! I am thankful that you are my sometimes-but-not-always-a-nutcase-friend, and that you teach me new terms like “religious consumerism.”
Sara Reply:
November 25th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
@Emily Wing Smith, Yes, you are one of the nuttiest of them all!
And I’m not sure I phrased that right…I mean consuming stuff with religious zealotry, not consuming religion.
I feel about Thanksgiving the way I do about Mother’s Day — it’s a shame we have to have a special day just for this, but there it is. Sometimes I think we’d all be a whole lot more grateful if we actually replicated the original Thanksgiving meal: stringy turkey, succotash, and steamed pumpkin. (I’d definitely be skinnier.)
I’ve had this same conversation with myself and you’ve strung good words to describe it all… my own IC wins too much.
I’m thankful for having seen you (and all the others!) at ALAN. And I’m thankful for lots of the things you mention (or somewhere in the neighborhood) and sad for the people who can’t find happiness in the little things. (At T-Day dinner I had to bite my tongue real hard when my mother felt she needed to argue that it was a known fact that ROCK AND ROLL is NOT music… Alas…!)
Hi Sara! Glad you are taking Advent preparation (or “emptying out in order to make ready,” as John Baptist does theologically in John 1:19ff) to heart.
On your eventual return to blogosphere, I wanted to comment on your note regarding what an editor should be about…I myself wondered as Raymond Carver was published at the wide range of tone in his work, from indifferent and often disdainful toward his characters (and so readers) to something verging on a Flannery O’Conner-like compassion.
The revelation in recent years of his editor’s ham-handed alterations explains a lot, though in his poetry, at least, there seemed an ongoing conversation with hope. So yes, joining you in (now post-)thanks-giving for those who help us write more honestly in our own voices, and not in theirs!