Thanksgiving month, days 10-11

(Crossposted from Google+)


Thanksgiving month, day 10:

I am thankful for a wide base of support. Too many times in my life my primary relationships have all been with family. The problem with this is, when a disaster strikes the family, all the people you depend on for support are likewise stricken. Like mountain climbers roped together, when one falls, all can get dragged off the cliff. The same can happen if your friends are all part of one tight-knit group: if one of the group has a crisis, it's a crisis for everyone.

On the other hand, having several different circles of friends has a cushioning effect; some of the people you depend on are likely NOT affected by whatever's currently troubling you, and likewise, when they're in trouble, the trouble isn't necessarily striking you equally hard. This "give" in the network lets it absorb shock without snapping.

Thanks, all my family, theater friends, school friends, colleagues, online friends, parents of my kids' friends, etc. etc. I hope I can be there when you need me.

Thanksgiving month, day 11:

I am thankful for things that make me laugh. I am thankful for my wirehaired dachshund Schnitzel, who never fails to crack me up with her get-under-a-blanket-and-jump-up-and-down dance, the more so since she is the most serious dog on the face of the earth and has no sense of humor AT ALL. I'm thankful for the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, Igudesman and Joo, and Peter Schickele, all of whom can make me laugh until tears are streaming down my face and my ribs ache. I'm thankful for my classmate Jill, whose dry, down-to-earth observations hit you upside the head like a frying pan when you least expect it. I'm thankful for my sister Liz, who can make the most frustrating, annoying parts of life hilarious with one barbed remark. I'm thankful for Jonathan Coulton, whose humor tends to have a sting in its tail, usually one I deserve--which makes the humor all the more treasured. I'm thankful for Maru the box-loving cat from Tokyo, for the snow-crazed stoat in a British garden, for LOLcats and Cake Wrecks and MIT students' inventive "modifications" of their campus. I'm thankful for laughing babies, frenzied kittens and old dogs dreaming of chasing rabbits. I'm thankful for the sense of YES THE UNIVERSE LOVES ME when I actually get to use the horrible pun first, before anyone else thinks of it. I'm thankful for my daughter SJ's letters home from Moscow, for my daughter Lucy's wild and inventive similes, and for my daughter Mary Ruth's devastatingly apt impressions. I'm thankful for my husband's dreadful puns and his inspired and unembarrassed silly streak. I'm thankful that I live in a family whose members think it's normal to improvise filk songs on the fly, or to cap each other's puns in a rapid-fire exchange that would make Noel Coward sit up and take notice, or to dress up for Halloween as things like a spicy chicken or the Grapes of Wrath.

I'm thankful for Terry Pratchett, Molly Ivins, Bailey White, and the guy who writes "Single Dad, Disabled Daughter". None of them have forgotten that life is hard and all people worthy of respect; none of them let that stop them from laughing when they can.