With Hallowe'en and the mid-term elections now behind us we are, it seems, hurtling headlong into the "Holiday Season." Already stores are offering Holiday sales, drug stores are selling Christmas tree lights and ornaments and, believe it or not, one Chicago radio station began playing Christmas music around the clock in the first week of November.
But it would be a shame if in all this flurry of activity the venerable holiday of Thanksgiving got lost. Thanksgiving is the only occasion during the year when each of us is encouraged to think about the things we are grateful for.
Originally the idea was to be thankful to a god people then believed in. But even in our more secular age we can still be aware that much of what makes our lives satisfying is not the result of our own efforts but the efforts of others, often people we do not even know--for example, the people who invented antibiotics or the founding fathers who created America's free political institutions.
But rather than telling you what you should be giving thanks for, it might be better if I share a few things I am thankful for in hopes that it will stimulate some ideas of your own. I am aware that a personal approach risks seeming sappy, but that is a necessary risk.
I suppose, first of all, I am thankful to be alive. It could easily have been otherwise. As a gay man who was sexually active during the late 1970s and early 1980s when, unknown to us all, HIV was spreading rapidly through our community, I could have been among those who contracted the virus and died early in the epidemic. Most of my friends from that era are dead.
So I am also thankful for the handful of friends I have left from that period as well as the ones I have managed to acquire since. They are the people who connect me to the world, entertain and inform me, offer help when needed and admonish me when I am wrong. More than most of us realize, we depend on friends to keep us sane and balanced.
As a single man and, it would seem, a confirmed bachelor, I am comfortable living without a partner. But for many people, having a partner can be a great blessing and certainly something to be thankful for. I can pass on the comment of one of my friends who observed one evening, "I am so lucky to have found a man I love and who loves me."
I am thankful that I am living at a time and in a country where a person can live openly with integrity as a gay person and lead a reasonably normal life. This opportunity is unique in recorded history and is still not possible in most of the world today. If we have not yet achieved full equality, we are closer than at any time in the past. Much of the freedom we have today is due to the courageous work of the pioneers of the gay movement and I am grateful to and thankful for them.
I am thankful for the two men from whom I have learned the most--Leo Strauss and Friedrich Hayek. Hayek and Strauss agree on almost nothing, so they exist in an unresolvable tension in my mind, a constant reminder that the world is more complicated than it seems, and serve as a stimulus to think carefully and write as clearly as possible. Two men whose erudition on homosexuality I am thankful for are psychologist C. A. Tripp and historian Wayne Dynes. Both shed light where there was darkness.
I am thankful for the proliferating variety and creativity of Western culture. Most of us will never absorb even half of it, but its music, art and literature have enriched my life and in many ways made my life worth living. A sampling of specifics: Literature--Conrad, Austen, Bely, Rand, Johnson, Swift; Music--Bach, Rachmaninoff, Vaughn Williams, Martinu, Gershwin; Art--Caravaggio, Caspar David Friedrich, De Chirico. My lists could be extended indefinitely, but then you have your own list.
Does it go without saying that I am thankful for my parents who did their best to guide and educate me? Perhaps it does not. When I have written appreciatively of my parents in the past, some people have commented to me that they did not have any such warm relationship with their parents. Reminders like that make me realize that supportive parents were not something I should take for granted but were the constant effort of two people trying hard to be good parents. For that I am thankful too.
7 Comments for “Don’t Forget Thanksgiving”
posted by kittynboi on
Thanksgiving should be a day of fasting and silent meditative mourning over what the white devil does to the indigenous cultures of the world.
LOLOLOLOLOLOL
But seriously.
I’m glad to have been born when I was and not in an earlier era where being gay was much more dangerous and being outed was a death sentence (as it unfortunately still is in many parts of the world.)
I concur with this;
“”””I am thankful for the proliferating variety and creativity of Western culture. Most of us will never absorb even half of it, but its music, art and literature have enriched my life and in many ways made my life worth living.””””
Though I wouldn’t limit it to the West, since one of my main loves is videogames, most of which come from Japan. And I prefer comics to most ‘literature’, though I do appreciate some stuff, (mostly lightearted fare like Hitchhikers Guide, Discworld, Lovecraft, Clarke, and Asimov.) I also like ‘classics’, like The MEtamorphoses and The Odyssey.
Music wise I think the stuff I’m thankful for couldn’t be more different than what you list, but whatever.
I’m not so much thankful for things, since that implies being thankful to someone or something, and aside from the people directly responsible for stuff, there’s no one to be thankful for, and plenty of things don’t have any one person or group of people to thank, so let’s just say I’m glad for the following things, whether thanks is due to any specific person or not; The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, Futurama, South Park, Final Fantasy, Batman, Rabbits, Candles, indian food, Thai food, 24, The X files, Star Trek, The West Wing, the fact that these days it seems T.V. is getting good again (lost, rome, all the glbt shows, 24, weeds.) and that this season has been a great season for omvies (BORAT!!!!!, The PRestige, Little Miss Sunshine, Black Dahlia, Hollywoodland, and lots more) comics, (52, Batman and the Mad Monk, the Auctioneer story arc in Action Comics, Paul Dini writing for Detective Comics, the new Justice League comics, Green Arrow Year 1 is set to come out, and new books and reinventions for Wonder Woman, The Atom, The Flash, Uncle Sam & The Freedom Fighters, and The Blue Beetle.) and this is the best season for video games since the early 1990s, with the Wii and PS3 released on the same weekend, and more awesome game releases than I’ll bother with on here.
I’ve also found a lot of awesome new bands, mostly small, unsigned, or on obscure labels, via myspace, like deerhunter, The Goslings, Paper Airplanes, Sky Parade, Ours to Alibi, and Willow.
I guess most of the stuff I’m ‘thankful’ for is pretty mundane and boring, but I like what I like.
posted by Bill Libbey on
Thanksgiving has passed in Canada, but I wish all our American friends a happy and safe day.
As a gay man, I’m first and most thankful for the love of my life, my partner of 33 plus years; for the fact that our love now is stronger and deeper than anything I ever could have imagined. I’m indeed appreciative of those who have supported us from the beginning. And at least as much, of those who have grown, evolved, changed and support us now with a new understanding of what equality means.
I’m greatful to two Canadian Prime Ministers, (Jean Chretien, Paul Martin) both staunch Catholic family men who had the courage and wisdom to separate church from state, to respect our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and to press for Equal Rights for all Canadians.
I’m thankful for every gay man, past and present who did not choose a closeted life, thus leading the way for me.
I’m greatful to all the talented people like Paul Varnell who so freely share their talents with us on the Web.
I’m so very thankful to every American, gay and straight, who continues the fight for gay rights, and indeed to all those around the world who do so, often at great risk to their personal safety.
posted by arthur on
I?m thankful for my attorney, who makes sure my partner or I will only loose part of our shared middle class existence when the other dies in The Great State of Ohio.
I?m thankful for my parents, who in the end, left me an equal share of their love.
I?m thankful for my in-laws, whose home will welcome me during the holidays.
I?m thankful to survive the 70?s and 80?s.
Oh, yeah, I?m thankful for what?s-his-name.
posted by kittynboi on
“”Oh, yeah, I?m thankful for what?s-his-name.””
Mel Brooks?
posted by Audrey B. on
No, I?m thankful for Mel Brooks. I?m also thankful for all the ?mos of the past (Da Vinci, Turing, Auden, Chapman) who have made things good for everyone, gay and straight.
posted by Joe on
I, like Paul Varnell, am thankful for those GLBT pioneers who came before me and paved the road for my wonderful life.
Thankful I am for my family, my partner of 26 years and our wonderful son who brings joy to our lives each day.
I am thankful for my family who raised me and my sister, although all gone, they live in my heart forever.
Thanks be for my partner’s family who have embraced us as a family.
I am grateful for my friend Sharon who guides and watches over me at work.
Finally, thanks to all of you who support our struggle for equality, without you, our lives would be much dimmer, and a thanks to myself for having the strength to fight in solidarity with all of you.
posted by randy R. on
Hurray!