{"id":537,"date":"2009-11-28T23:53:24","date_gmt":"2009-11-29T03:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=537"},"modified":"2009-11-28T23:53:24","modified_gmt":"2009-11-29T03:53:24","slug":"reflections-on-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/reflections-on-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"REFLECTIONS ON THANKSGIVING"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hope all y\u2019all had as cool a Thanksgiving as I did. Significant Other and I spent it with my younger daughter, her husband, and their beautiful little girl \u2013 my first grandchild \u2013 who will soon hit her third birthday.<\/p>\n

It was a reminder of touchstone values\u2026those we most love are our Raisons d\u2019etre<\/em>, our reasons for existing. And I expect this particular holiday was all of that for you, too.<\/p>\n

Yes, turkeys were involved. We watched a flock of wild turkeys near a reservoir when we all took the little one for a romp in the more-or-less wilderness. (Actually more less than more, but when you live in skyscraper country with floors and sidewalks, I guess anything with hills and grass qualifies as \u201cwilderness.\u201d) Main thing was, the kid enjoyed heck out of it\u2026and so did her parents and the proud grandparent present.<\/p>\n

We had our \u201cThanksgiving feast\u201d at an overpriced restaurant in a big city, so my youngest \u2013 well along in a pregnancy which, according to the sonograms, will give me a grandson in the spring \u2013 wouldn\u2019t have to cook. Country and metropolis, all in one day \u2026 a microcosm of life in America. Somewhere, I hope, Norman Rockwell was smiling, even if we weren\u2019t convened \u2018round a family table.\u00a0 At the reservoir, we spotted huge families who had gathered at picnic tables for their Thanksgiving celebration, under clear and pleasant West Coast skies. They were having a good day, and we were happy for them. It was a cheerful reminder that in our country, large families can gather for a sharing of love without having a big \u201crich man\u2019s house\u201d to accommodate a large group of people who care about one another. After all, historical depictions of the \u201cfirst Thanksgiving\u201d depict it al fresco<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As I write this, the Thanksgiving Weekend continues. Peace and happiness to you all, and enjoy the coming Christmas Season. These end of year celebrations remind us all of our core values.\u00a0 They renew our commitment to live for \u2013 and, yes, even fight for \u2013 the things, the principles, and above all the people who are the touchstones of our existence.<\/p>\n

Three generations at Thanksgiving.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"3gen\"<\/p>\n

An Outdoor Thanksgiving<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"OutdoorT_Giving\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hope all y\u2019all had as cool a Thanksgiving as I did. Significant Other and I spent it with my younger daughter, her husband, and their beautiful little girl \u2013 my first grandchild \u2013 who will soon hit her third birthday. It was a reminder of touchstone values\u2026those we most love are our Raisons d\u2019etre, our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}