When my wife and I were first married and lived downstate, we seldom made it home to Chicago for Thanksgiving. We both worked the day before and after, so six hours in a car in one day were just too much. For the past dozen years or so, we have been able to make the trek northward having that long holiday weekend available to us.
We have taken turns going to my wife's family's Thanksgiving one year and mine the next.
This year, there are several glitches in Thanksgiving for both sides of the family. For some of us things have come up that means both sides of the family will have small get togethers with perhaps only half of each family being able to make the holiday.
The girls on my wife's side always get together on Black Friday with a few of the youngsters, including my son, and make a big day out of all shopping together. Most of the men on both sides have to work Friday, with a few in retail having to work Saturday as well. That leaves me with a pass to not go up north this Thanksgiving. I'm not the shopping kind and I can't sit around a house not doing something.
I could do my work for the paper at someone else's house using my Laptop but my wife understands this Thanksgiving is more about the Black Friday get together than the Thanksgiving Day reunion and she gave me a pass on going. Both sides of the family are relatively close with many get togethers during the year so this isn't as if our one chance to visit has been deterred.
I won't be sad and lonely being home by myself this coming weekend. This is the perfect time to fix the plumbing in the main bathroom as I can live with just taking a cat bath one day if I must while my wife and son would not.
I also can do something I have wanted to do before and that is share some Thanksgiving Day stories with our paper's readers that for too long have been ignored.
One is the local senior center offering a Thanksgiving meal and get together for their members and all other seniors who don't have a special place to go this Thanksgiving. In some cases, family are too far away or they have none and they can get together with that other family they have at the center. Volunteers at the center give up their day off to do this kind gesture with nothing but smiles on their faces the entire day. I will get my fill of T-Day food while I am there covering the story.
The second story is even more remarkable and redeeming to this old man. A local, highly successful family restaurant will all get together Thanksgiving morning and prepare 300 meals for area shut-ins who have no means of having a special meal on Thursday. The owners and staff work a grueling half day to make sure no one is left out this holiday from having at least something to be thankful for. Local organizations then come to the rescue, grabbing the prepared meals and drive off making a dash to deliver the meals wherever needed. This is an annual event that for too long has not been shared with the community.
It's a great story that never is covered since all area newspaper staffs are off on the holiday. This year I will be on the job, and will get a chance to have a second special meal and I like to highlight the word special.
The radio station I am involved with just finished our annual food drive for the local pantry and I spent the past weekend loading and unloading trucks of groceries the good people of this community donated to the pantry. It was terribly cold but the site of all the food being donated and the heavy workout of carrying hundreds of bags of food around kept my mind and heart warm this weekend. There is a pictorial of that result in the Monday, Nov 24 edition of the www.lincolndailynews.com
I wrote a few months ago how covering good events and occasions has helped give me a sense of balance. It helps me to understand that with all that is wrong, there is still much that is right.
And here is my request to all of you Warpies out there. I know full well your communities are just as generous and caring as the one I am privileged to live in. Take the time to be a cub reporter for just a few hours and find the good in your neighborhood and report that story to all of us at Searchwarp as Christmas approaches.
We all can then share. We all then can get that sense of balance that not everything is wrong. Not everything is hopeless. It never will be because of all of us.
I look forward to reading some great stories.
Freelance writer, columnist, author and writing coach, ex-Chicagoan Mike Fak presently resides in Central Illinois. More information about Mike's services are available at his home website www.mikefak.com
Mike currently writes primarily humor columns for searchwarp bi-weekly and is the managing editor of www.lincolndailynews.com
Mike now offers a 26,000 word e-book on making money as a freelance writer for only $10.00 at this page. http://www.mikefak.com/id45.html
What a heart-warming call to action! I'll take you up on it. Thank you for sharing Lincoln with us. I am beginning to feel like it's my sister town/city! Have a blessed T-day! -Avis
Hi, Mike, this is a good read for Thanksgiving Day. I especially liked the way you started the end of your thoughts, where you wrote: "I wrote a few months ago how covering good events and occasions has helped give me a sense of balance. It helps me to understand that with all that is wrong, there is still much that is right." Thanks for another good SW read!
Thanks Jane. I just got back from the restaurant getting 350 meals out their door in an hour. Thanks to so many volunteers that lined the lot waiting to deliver meals. There is balance in my life today. I hope you have that as well.
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