Universal Enlightenment?????

I wanted to write something about gratitude for Thanksgiving. It's about letting go of misfortune, turning hopeful thoughts towards the next year being thankful for those things we have right now. Like health, life, and the company of our loved ones.

It's actually a little weird, that we celebrate Thanksgiving and then immediately afterwards the two biggest shopping days of the year.

I recently saw someone on Facebook write something like, "the only thing worse than all the Black Friday sales, is all the sanctimonious pricks telling you to resist the consumerism."

The conflict is actually the central issue in the human experience. Do we accept what is, or do we strive for more?

Icarus fell from the skys, for flying too close to the sun. Ahab's fury at the elusive white whale sank his whole ship. The first Faust was damned for his hubris... the second (Goethe's) was saved by his striving.

The solution, I feel, is to be thankful for your ambition.

"I’m thankful, and I want more."

Epicurus wrote, “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

And this is true: we should always be grateful for being where we are. But that doesn't mean we should not ask for more, because to imagine, to dream of what is not, is the central gift of human genius.

It reminds me of the famous scene in Oliver Twist, “Please sir, can I have some more?” Daring to ask is the inciting incident in that orphan's story, which leads to greater misfortune at first, but is instrumental in his personal journey.

You can have anything you want.

Somewhere, there is a door, behind which is the thing you seek. But you may need to knock on thousands of doors before you discover it. If, however, you loudly proclaim the thing you are seeking, along the way you will also gain relationships and knowledge that lead you to your quest, which is why it seems as if “what you seek is seeking you.”

Why am I telling you all this? Because you should take a breath, and focus on all the amazing things you have done and learned this year, while also thinking about where you want to be a year from now.

Well I guess that about covers it for today.

I sincerely hope and pray that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and took several days to recover from the overindulgence that is common on this day of days. I know that I completely ate to darn much, but it was so good, one of the advantages of living with a classical chef (aka, my daughter)!!!!!!!

May The Great Architect of the Universe watch over you and keep you safe as you travel down your path of life.