Table Talk for Nov. 27, 2008
Gratitude includes the journey of daily life
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I’ll have ample opportunity to express gratitude today. My church, First Church of Christ, Scientist, holds a special service on Thanksgiving to give members and visitors the opportunity to publicly give thanks for the blessings that have come their way during the year.
After church, our expanded family is gathering at our house to enjoy a bountiful potluck buffet. Before we eat, my mother-in-law, Annie Simmons, will give the meal blessing.
I expect at some point during the day to thank all the cooks who contributed to the lunch. Someone is bound to bring corn pudding.
Here is an easy one to make if putting it together right now for today’s meal.
After the meal, everyone will form a big circle to once more individually acknowledge something he or she is grateful for. The circle recitation can be humorous since there are rules on how our “circle of thanks” works. If the first person says “I am grateful for my much loved and loyal dog, ‘Spot,’ ” then the next person must give thanks for something starting with a “T,” the last letter of the previous speaker’s gratitude item, which was “Spot.” We draw numbers to see who starts the “circle of thanks.”
I hope I get No. 1 or at least get to follow someone whose item ends in an “S.” I want to specifically give thanks for my SUV. I’m impatient with critics who chastise both U.S. automakers for making SUVs and drivers who choose to own and drive these great kids/equipment/boat-hauling automobile/trucks.
I’ve owned and driven a Dodge van, Chevrolet Suburban and three Ford Expeditions. These auto/trucks have provided wonderful, trustworthy transportation. Every one of them has gotten almost 200,000 miles before being sold or traded. Our SUVs have delivered our kids’ youth basketball, football and cross-country teams to practices, games and meets; pulled 17-, 20- and 25-foot family fishing boats all over the Gulf Coast; moved our kids from our home to colleges and then to new homes in Dallas and Atlanta; hauled dozens of dishes, baskets of new products, linens and boxes of cookbooks to Food Focus shows and talks given by the Food staff; transported tons of bags of garden mulch, fertilizer, landscaping timbers, gravel, stepping stones and plants from nursery and home improvement centers to our homes and camps; and allowed us this summer to travel in one vehicle with our dogs, kids and grandkids.
My current Ford Expedition gets 20 miles to the gallon on the highway, and that’s not bad when you consider it can pull our fishing boat at the same time it transports our 98-pound German shepherd in his dog crate, all our fishing gear and ice chests, my husband and I and the four grandchildren who want to go fishing with PaPa Fish and NaNa.
Am I grateful for being able to own and drive a well-built USA-made SUV?
You “betcha.”
After church, our expanded family is gathering at our house to enjoy a bountiful potluck buffet. Before we eat, my mother-in-law, Annie Simmons, will give the meal blessing.
I expect at some point during the day to thank all the cooks who contributed to the lunch. Someone is bound to bring corn pudding.
Here is an easy one to make if putting it together right now for today’s meal.
After the meal, everyone will form a big circle to once more individually acknowledge something he or she is grateful for. The circle recitation can be humorous since there are rules on how our “circle of thanks” works. If the first person says “I am grateful for my much loved and loyal dog, ‘Spot,’ ” then the next person must give thanks for something starting with a “T,” the last letter of the previous speaker’s gratitude item, which was “Spot.” We draw numbers to see who starts the “circle of thanks.”
I hope I get No. 1 or at least get to follow someone whose item ends in an “S.” I want to specifically give thanks for my SUV. I’m impatient with critics who chastise both U.S. automakers for making SUVs and drivers who choose to own and drive these great kids/equipment/boat-hauling automobile/trucks.
I’ve owned and driven a Dodge van, Chevrolet Suburban and three Ford Expeditions. These auto/trucks have provided wonderful, trustworthy transportation. Every one of them has gotten almost 200,000 miles before being sold or traded. Our SUVs have delivered our kids’ youth basketball, football and cross-country teams to practices, games and meets; pulled 17-, 20- and 25-foot family fishing boats all over the Gulf Coast; moved our kids from our home to colleges and then to new homes in Dallas and Atlanta; hauled dozens of dishes, baskets of new products, linens and boxes of cookbooks to Food Focus shows and talks given by the Food staff; transported tons of bags of garden mulch, fertilizer, landscaping timbers, gravel, stepping stones and plants from nursery and home improvement centers to our homes and camps; and allowed us this summer to travel in one vehicle with our dogs, kids and grandkids.
My current Ford Expedition gets 20 miles to the gallon on the highway, and that’s not bad when you consider it can pull our fishing boat at the same time it transports our 98-pound German shepherd in his dog crate, all our fishing gear and ice chests, my husband and I and the four grandchildren who want to go fishing with PaPa Fish and NaNa.
Am I grateful for being able to own and drive a well-built USA-made SUV?
You “betcha.”
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