Back in 2010, I did a rewrite of a diary I first penned (typed? pecked?) in 2008. It's one that lends itself to revisitation, and with your indulgence I'm doing so this year...
Every year at Thanksgiving, a certain song reminds me of its existence, and gets serious airplay :-). It's the closest thing to a "grace" set to music I've ever heard, and as those celebrating American Thanksgiving with friends and family born and/or chosen recover from tryptophan and carbohydrate overload, I'd like to share a it with you tonight. Follow me below the dingledoodle squigglie dKosagnocchi dividerthingie fold after a word from our sponsor...
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The song is May The Light Of Love, by David Roth (song starts around 4:09).
As we come around to take our places at the table
A moment to remember and reflect upon our wealth
Here's to loving friends and family, here's to being able
To gather here together in good company and health
This year our table is our own; smaller than it's been in many years. Instead of traveling to my sister's like we did last year, or to Mr. Brillig's parents or sister's as we have in many years past, we hosted his folks here. Our table had room (and food) for many more, but weeks of careful listening to friends didn't yield word of someone alone or in need of a seat or three. It was nonetheless full of love - amazing how in a room of two or more, any love contained therein expands to fill the entire space.
We don't usually say a nightly grace at Casa Brillig; these days we consider ourselves lucky if we all manage to make it to the table at the same time. On major holidays, we try to do so. The Great Thanksgiving Incident of 2003, in which I added a prayer for the innocent civilians whose lives were lost during the Iraq & Afghanistan wars to the end of one praying for our troops, means I likely will never lead grace at Mr. Brillig's family's houses (9 years and counting :-)), but no matter who does and what they say, I give silent thanks for good friends, good family, and good health.
I look around at my DailyKos family, and see in all of you a loving family of great wealth. You enrich my life with wise words, fantastic political insight, good humor, sage advice, comment nominations I'd otherwise miss and friendships which mean more than I will ever be able to put into words. Attending Netroots Nation is so much more than a conference - it's a reunion of friends old, new and not yet made all in one.
As the years cycle, I mourn those no longer with us physically, but whose presence graces our memories forever. "Good health" takes on a new baseline as arthritis, diabetes, cancer and other health issues become part of life.
May we be released from all those feelings that would harm us
May we have the will to give them up and get them gone
For heavy are the satchels full of anger and false promise
May we have the strength to put them down.
From the constant attacks leveled at, well,
everyone who isn't rich and conservative by the radical right to the divisiveness within our community, our party, and our country, we've all got a lot of hurt and anger to release. It is hard to wish the best for Tea Partiers, for example, when we are
not sure they return the sentiment pretty damned sure they do NOT return the sentiment. But in order to be true to the ideals I believe we hold in common as Kossacks, liberals, and just plain good people, we must.
To heed these words is hard to do. I used to be one who held grudges, carried them like lead bricks to weigh down relationships great and small. Who used words spoken in different times and under different circumstances to prejudice my reactions to present-day interactions. I HR'ed the commenter, not the comment, as it were :-).
Honesty requires me to say I don't succeed at this nearly as well as I'd like. I strive daily to do better, but it is HARD to let arguments go, to move on to a new day and forget the past. To leave jealousy behind and be happy for the richness and joy others find. I know many of you know this deeply and personally.
To those of you who say "but the anger focuses my activism" I don't entirely disagree. I suggest refocusing it into passionate purpose; letting the anger transform into action.
May we wish the best for everyone that we encounter
May we swallow pride and may we do away with fear
For it's only what we do not know that we have grown afraid of
And only what we do not choose to hear
From year to year different verses speak more or less insistently and this year this and the one that follows call out loudly. I truly believe that one of... perhaps THE... root cause of so many of the troubles we have as a society and as a country is fear. We fear what we do not know. Fear it will change what we do know. Fear someone else may have more or better than us. Fear being fearful.
Someone's health insurance is abysmal, but they "know" it, so instead of embracing Obamacare's potential they protest and demand to keep the substandard policies that will do nothing if actually used.
Gun violence kills men, women and children every day, but the bogeyman named "stranger" is feared so much that a hoodie plus the "wrong" skin tone are equivalent to a bullseye on the back.
With few exceptions, NONE of us can claim we were here first, or "legally". I don't remember any mention of visas or clearing customs in my 17th century American History classes. Fear of someone getting what we feel is "ours" has some clamoring to shut the nation's doors to others, and send back tens of thousands of children and young adults whose only crime was to be young enough not to have a voice in their parents' decision to enter the country.
WE NEED TO CONQUER FEAR. We need to see in what we do not know an opportunity to learn and grow richer together.
As we bless our daily bread and drink our day's libation
May we be reminded of the lost and wayward soul
The hungry and the homeless that we have in every nation
May we fill each empty cup and bowl
SNAP cuts. Vilification of the homeless, the poor, the out of work, the disabled. Caviar and
$350 wine. We have it within our means to provide for our brothers and sisters. It requires that we move beyond "I got mine" to "Here, have some."
As I mentioned in Tuesday's diary, Casa Brillig had a 24lb turkey today. Yes, it was huge. We had to pre-order before we knew we'd be a small group. We're sending a good chunk of it home with Mom and Dad, and also to my sister-in-law, who don't have leftovers from their dinner with friends (small turkey as friends are vegetarian). K2 looked at us in horror as we discussed sending some with Mom and Dad, who will see my SIL tomorrow. "But... this is our turkey, they can get their own." Our gentle teachable moment reply was that we had extra, and they had none. So turkey and stuffing (we might have made 4 loaf pans full because well, stuffing), and then we ALL get leftovers!
The refrain goes as follows:
May the light of love be shining deep within your spirit
May the torch of mercy clear the path and show the way
May the horn of plenty sound so everyone can hear it
May the light of love be with you every day
May you have each and all of these, and may the vision of ourselves, our communities, our nation and our world come to pass because we work to bring it to fruition.
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything
without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do
not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From koNko:
My suggestion for Top Comments is this zinger by Diogenes2008 in response to yet another Ted Rall fail.
From BeninSC:
Flagged by vcmvo2, this comment by jayden catches Huckabee in an ... untruth. (Even though it isn't hard to do, that does not detract from jayden's insight.)
Flagged by rsmpdx, this comment by Mokurai calls for media coverage of Republican obstructions to the ACA. (Only recommendable a few moments after TC posts tonight, so visit quickly!)
From
Dragon5616:
CharlieHipHop had this comment about ER's in the US in ERdoc in PA's recommended diary How ACA can save lives: let’s visit my Emergency Room on Thanksgiving morning.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
LieparDestin had an absolutely brilliant diary, plus this zinger in the comments responding to nuclear winter solstice.
Shockwave's comment in Dave in Northridge's must-read Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation gets a nom from me tonite.
Top Mojo for yesterday, November 27th, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you
mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary
FAQing Top Mojo.
1) Scalia isn't a "judge", he's a right wing hack by Jeff Y — 145
2) I don't give a rat's about his dislike. by Radiowalla — 136
3) Same as it ever was by Vita Brevis — 114
4) If corporations are people by quaoar — 114
5) corporations as people is such a BS slippery slope by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse — 98
6) I find this in an absolute and thorough-going by commonmass — 94
7) It's about controlling and denigrating women. by Tackle — 91
8) At the very least, they should get a colonoscopy by Mother Mags — 91
9) There is so much more to this than by Vita Brevis — 88
10) I hadn't seen the diary, by doc2 — 86
11) Sex is only bad for women, not men. by Desert Rose — 85
12) Not very Christian of them nt by a2nite — 84
13) the Pope? a Commie? by corvo — 78
14) well by Pablo Bocanegra — 77
15) Sorry, Jesus, you've got a week to cut... by Meteor Blades — 74
16) Last paragraph says it all by Puddytat — 74
17) What a beautiful child! I can by satrap — 68
18) Don't give up by CharlieHipHop — 68
19) What if Scalia's views have evolved? by Bob Love — 67
20) Love your last paragraph. n/t by navajo — 67
21) This will give the MSM major butt hurt. by psychodrew — 67
22) We're officially smack dab in the middle of... by markthshark — 67
23) does Hobby Lobby health insurance cover Viagra by MartyM — 65
24) "Corporations are people, my friend." by DeadHead — 63
25) "It's just a cartoon". by doc2 — 63
26) Mark Mywurtz isn't derailing by Diogenes2008 — 62
27) Last April, Black Kos published a two-part diary by koosah — 61
28) Let me get this straight.. by Annie B — 60
29) Context is everything. by JamesGG — 59
30) Been seeing a lot of this. A particularly grating by Jim P — 59
Top Pictures for yesterday, November 27th. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you
jotter for the image magic!
P.S. Indulge me a second time for this anniversary announcement: 4 years ago today we laid eyes on, hugged, and welcomed into our family K2, in the courtyard of the orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Nine other families were there that week, and most of us have stayed in contact with one another. I can't believe how time flies.