Thanksgiving…

So whenever I open Facebook, I see people who update each November day with a Thank You of some sort.  I, myself, don’t do this because I know I have neither the patience nor discipline to pull this off every single day.

So on this day, the day before Thanksgiving of 2012, I’m going to share with you just a few things for which I am immensely thankful.  I may even cite examples of a few.  Pencils ready, people.

Stephanie – I am thankful for my wife Stephanie for so, so many reasons, but her ability to make me laugh is one of the biggest.  Two weeks ago, we were at her parents’ house in Effingham, Illinois for a visit.  Steph’s mom gave her, quite possibly, the ugliest pair of pants I’ve ever seen in my life.  They are navy, possibly a mixture of velour, fleece, and angora, and they are hellatial in the butt, which is really saying something because Steph has an amazing…well, you get the point.

So last night, I’m sitting on the side of the tub while Sam was brushing his teeth.  Steph walks into the bathroom in those pants.  She then starts checking them out in the mirror and frowns.  Then, she pulls the waistband up right to the middle of her ribcage…so now they’re not just ugly pants…they’re ugly Mom-pants.  If that wasn’t enough, she then started shaking her butt at me in a not quite come-hither way.   She may have even used the term Hubba Hubba.  I may have actually burned calories laughing.

Sam – I am thankful for Sam for his unending compassion.  Yesterday, Sam wasn’t feeling well so we kept him home from school.  After getting a bit of work done around the house, Sam asked if we could play Super Mario Brothers on Wii.  Well who am I to say no? So we inflated the king-sized air mattress that we have yet to use for camping, and we played Wii.

Now this you have to know: I don’t play this game very often, and I was dropping Luigi’s like poop through a goose…loose, messy, and stinking up the place.  Yet every time I died, Sam would roll over on top of me and say, It’s okay, daddy.  I don’t mind that you died again.  You’ll get there, someday.
And then he’d pat me on the head.

Ben – I am thankful for Ben for his unquenchable desire to be involved with us.  Last night, Steph, Ben and I were in the kitchen, where he had just helped my wife make a pretty amazing sweet potato concoction for Thanksgiving dinner.  He then looked at us and said, Can we have fruit soup for dessert later?  In our house, fruit soup is actually a flambé.  Last night’s was going to be made with butter, sugar, bananas, Cointreau, and white wine, poured over vanilla ice cream, with crushed chocolate and whipped cream on top.  Really healthy desserts, we provide our children.

So later when I got ready to make it, I called downstairs to Ben, who was watching a movie with Sam.  Ben, I’m going to make the flambé now.  Like a bat out of Hades, Ben drops the movie, races up the stairs, and helps me make the dessert.  If only for a moment, and I know it won’t always be like this, to my son, I was cooler and more important than Phineas and Ferb.

I’m seriously thankful for so many people and so many things.  I’m unbelievably thankful for my parents, my brother and his family, for my extended family, and for Steph’s family.

I’m thankful for amazing friends…friends that come from all walks of life.  I’m thankful for their amazing support, and their ability to have always seen me for who I was, not what I did for a living.  And I’m thankful for their innate ability to take me beyond my comfort zone, and to shatter every wall I’ve ever had.

I’m thankful for wine, beer, and Grey Goose with grapefruit.

I’m thankful for our Bear.

I’m thankful for Cardinals baseball, Andre Agassi’s tennis, and Manchester United.

I’m thankful for live music, for Rush, for Ryan Cabrera, Mickey Avalon, Louden Swain, Laurie Berkner and the Urge.

I’m thankful for House MD, 24, and Entourage, and I miss you all dearly.  I now have nothing to watch.  Where the hell are you, Deadliest Catch?!

I’m thankful I’m an omnivore.  Meat is just too tasty to pass up.

I’m thankful for amazing traveling experiences…going to Haiti with Wayne Elsey and Todd Newton and Soles4Souls.  I’m thankful for Germantown New York, and helping to tell the story of a woman destined for Sainthood (seriously, Sainthood).  I’m thankful for Key Lime Cove and Bermuda and New York, for giving our boys forever memories that we will always cherish.  I’m also thankful to Vancouver for having me at the biggest crossroads of my life.  I’m thankful I took the correct path.

I’m thankful for the journey that brought me to where I am.  I’m thankful for being born in Ireland, for immigrating to the U.S., and for the ability to appreciate all that this great country means.

I’m thankful for every single failure I’ve ever had.  I’ve learned that failure makes me stronger.  I’ve learned that failure keeps me humble.  And for me, there is almost no greater motivator to succeed than failure.

I’m thankful for people who care enough to make a difference in the world.  There are not enough of you.  At all.  Ever.

I’m thankful to Joe Farmer, and Meredith Arns, and Kelly Willenborg, and David VonAllmen for having the guts to come on this crazy journey that is the Half Fund.  And along those lines…

…I am thankful to God for allowing me to have cancer.

Kinda threw you with that one, huh?

While I curse cancer with every fiber of my being, I seriously thank God I had it.  It was a wake-up call of epic proportions.  It gave me clarity.  It gave me the ability to shed my fear of a great many things.  It made me realize what is truly important.

And…it gave me the ability to talk to others about it.  I joke when I say that cancer is a fraternity, and once you have gone through it, the mystification is erased.  I can’t tell you how many people I’ve had the privilege of talking with over the last two years about what they’re going through, and I can’t tell you how special it makes me feel when people actually trust me to talk to about it.

And I’m here to tell you that there is absolutely no difference between me and anyone else when it comes to being a go-to confidant.  Oh sure, I can talk someone’s ear off about chemo drugs, and about goofy side effects, or even about waking up that first morning when you lose your hair.  But honestly, that’s just the physical.  They physical is important, sure, but the emotional is the really, really tough part.  And to be honest, I have no special gift at all on that front.

Anyone reading this can be that shoulder of support.  Anyone reading this should be that shoulder of support.  All it takes is the ability to listen.

Is it easier for me?  Yes, and I thank cancer for that.  Am I any better at it?  No, I’m not.  I’m just not afraid of it, and you shouldn’t be, either.

And I’ve kept you way longer than I should have.  Go eat some turkey.  I know I will.  And throw a good thought my way , as by the time this is all over, I’ll be retaining more water than the Titanic.