The Senescent Man

First, an excellent piece on the origin of the American Thanksgiving holiday.  Excerpt below:

"It was the first of many Thanksgivings ordered up by Samuel Adams. Though the holidays were almost always in November or December, the exact dates varied. (Congress didn't fix Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November until 1941.)

"In 1778, a Thanksgiving resolution drafted by Adams was approved by Congress on Nov. 3, setting aside Wednesday, Dec. 30, as a day of public thanksgiving and praise, 'It having pleased Almighty God through the Course of the present year, to bestow great and manifold Mercies on the People of these United States.'."

But there is more,...

Secondly, an excerpt from Rick Brookheiser at NRO that expresses a thought about thankfulness about which I concur:

"I am unutterably, and even so insufficiently, grateful that there is something rather than nothing, and that one of the things that is is me — a free, fortuitous, didn't-have-to-happen, once-in-infinity lottery ticket for which I was the lucky winner. Nonexistence would have been so dull, would it not? And even if that's where I'm headed, I hope to be able to say, 'Thanks, it's been real' as I go."

And finally, my own thanks:

Thanks to the Almighty, the One and only ONE, who has intervened in the vain life of this middle class, middle aged man, subject to entropy, but covered with the undeserved riches of a loving family, true friends, employment, and health.  Life is filled with change, but there is One true friend who never changes.

// posted by The Senescent Man @ 10:48 AM