Thanksgiving for Sports, Parades, and Ballet
Along with fruitcake and eggnog.
Happy Thanksgiving Eve!
Recently, I’ve been writing about things I am thankful for that aren’t the typical ones.
I am attempting to go deeper into areas where, frankly, at least I have either mixed feelings or know I need to cultivate more understanding — which should then lead to greater expressions of gratitude.
My list above is like that.
I enjoy sports on occasion, but don’t ask me what I think about a particular team or athlete because the conversation may not get off the ground.
As for parades, they’re nice. I’ve been in a few, been to a few more, but most have played in the background on some holiday while the family is waking up and having some sort of special high calorie breakfast.
I guess what I can say about sports, parades, ballet, fruitcake, and eggnog as a group is that they are not things I would go to, watch, eat or drink by myself.
However, I would love enjoying them with others, especially those who are truly into those sorts of things.
When I was younger, things like the above were topics I might have kidded others for enjoying.
I try not to do this anymore because, over time, I have realized that my own unique hobbies and interests are of the same nature.
They provide me enjoyment, which is something both good and necessary, especially when life is not clean and neat, but they are not even close to everyone’s cup of tea.
Going just a little deeper, sports is an opportunity to see a struggle end with an acceptable outcome.
Our team may not win, but hopefully the competition was close and exciting and they did their best. Sports is able to inspire us in our own lives to play by the rules and not give up.
Parades bring communities together. A lot of civic pride come out of parades. They remind us that we have lots of friends and neighbors we just haven’t met yet.
Ballet is an acquired taste for most but it connects us with our cultural past. We appreciate that generations who lived before us cared about beauty, athleticism, and important life-themes we still care about today.
Fruitcake, for me, like ballet, is also an acquired taste.
Eggnog tastes fantastic at first. I find it hard to finish the glass. It’s probably an excuse for alcohol.
All of it put together brings me a particular joy in knowing I live with and around people very different from me, and this is something to be thankful about every day of the year.
