Guess who goes to Best Buy with ~$500, and walks out with a Vitamin Water and a Dasani? Yeah. Shut up.
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A NOTE ABOUT RESILIENCE
Well, it’s Thanksgiving. And for the first time ever, I’m spending it away from a home-cooked meal at my mother’s house. I suppose that has to do with actually leaving that situation. But it’s sort of weird. I mean, right now, she’s probably prepping a turkey in the oven, baked a few pies, and I’m not there to sniff any of it.
I suppose that is what I get for moving. Oh, well.
That leads me to what I’m thankful for this year: resilience. Simply, resilience. I take the example of people who I’ve known in life; people who I know, or knew, or used to know, or thought I did, and the impact of those people on my life. Part of getting older is looking back at certain things that occurred, and asking, “How did I get through that?”
And I do ask: how did I turn out so level-headed (or so others tell me) for a kid who went through two divorces, had his best friend murdered, changed addresses about 15 times, and attended special education all his life? How did I manage to avoid pitfalls that doomed others, like having a kid at age 15, or drugs and alcohol?
Perhaps it was little things that mom did to keep me level. The Toy Ban of 87-88. The fact that she cultivated any of my interests—sports, movies, computers. Or maybe, I just took each part of life, and made it into a lesson. Man, I could write a book to my kid about the lessons I’ve learned. But the key thing is, through each difficult period, I got through. That’s resilience.
So, even though I’ll have no family to share Thanksgiving with this year, I’m going out to some restaurant where they’ll serve turkey and greens, mashed potatoes, corn, and maybe pie, and make what I can of it. Resilience, my friends.
Happy Thanksgiving, and also…understand that the law on Holiday Music is now lifted. If you have one of those stations that go automated, and play John Tesh clip-ins? I feel sorry for you. Okay, not really. You choose to listen to that.
Former University of Miami defensive end Dwayne Johnson is on tonight, along with chef Paula Deen.
Okay. You want clips. Fine.