Thanksgiving: Season for Being Thankful

I had my first US sighting of a highway turning into one long line of parking lots, practically, today on our way to fetch our son back from UF. The highway is I-75 between Micanopy and Ocala. Fortunately, the gridlock eased off after the turnoff into the Florida Turnpike and we reached home about one hour later than normal.

However, the highway traffic jam differs from that in Malaysia in one major aspect: all the cars here keep within the moving lanes, none venturing into the side tables/emergency lanes, save for one siren blaring police car. In Malaysia, a six-lane highway would be turned into an 8-lane thoroughfare, with vehicles constantly weaving in and out.

Today is the eve of Thanksgiving, a decidedly US tradition. So a lot of folks were trying to get home (It was reported in the Today Show of today that an estimated 34 millions will be on the road during this year’s thanksgiving travel.). So I guess it’s not out of place for us to be thankful for the things that we have been blessed with and for the events that have left an indelible impression on us in the past year. In random order, I would like to recount the following as being particularly worthy of mention at the personal level:

• My wife continued to adjust well to the less hectic life here minus most of the social mingling and has become receptive to perhaps making a more permanent transition here.


• Our children are great and doing great, either gainfully employed or academically challenged (in the positive sense).


• My work is great, and professionally challenging.


• We have had a hurricane-free year (the hurricane season officially ends on Nov 30, but I would be surprised, though not pleasantly, if one were to strike between now and then, and that will be bucking the trend indeed).


• We were able to attend two series of Dharma lecture series by Venerable Bhikkhuni Sing Yi and Venerable Master Hui Zheng.


• We are all healthy enough to obviate hospital visits.

At the societal level and beyond, we are thankful that no major calamity has occurred, though several flashpoints continue to simmer (religious conflict, Dafur, North Korea missile testing, Global warming, and discord in the Kyoto Accord).

May all beings be well, happy, and peaceful.