Thanks for the Common Things

Every year I fight a rear-guard action to make Thanksgiving last as long as possible. Admittedly, with the fact that most stores begin to promote Christmas sales in October (or September!), this is a lost cause. Still, all true-lovers of pilgrims, turkey and actual giving of thanks should give me credit for at least trying.

In Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis has Wormwood, the master demon, write the following to the inexperienced tempter, Screwtape: "The man who truly and disinterestedly enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring twopence what other people say about it, is by that very fact forearmed against some of our subtlest modes of attack. You should always try to make the patient abandon the people or food or books he really likes in favor of the 'best' people, the 'right' food, the 'important' books. I have known a human defended from strong temptations to social ambition by a still stronger taste for tripe and onions."

Of course, this is really what sincere gratitude is all about. If we spend more time thanking God for what really delights us - even the most common things of life - we will be less tempted to conform to the general attitude of always wanting more, better and bigger. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts." 

With that firmly in mind, I would like to give thanks this year for some common things that I have enjoyed in life - kind of on the order of "tripe and onions", which I will not include on my own list!

Thinking of food, I am thankful for Bodacious Bar-B-Q. The restaurant was founded in 1960 as "Lil Roland's Bodacious Bar-B-Que" in Duncanville, Texas. However, Roland, and his wife Nancy, relocated to Longview, Texas in 1968, and by the grace of God opened their first East Texas location right across from my alma mater, LeTourneau University. Back in the Seventies, when Su and I were young and broke, on Tuesdays you could buy five sandwiches for $1.00. I ate so many them that I sweat the odor of mesquite smoke on hot Texas days - and I seem to remember there were a lot of those!

I am thankful for the Swift Jewel Cowboys, Louis Innis and His String Dusters, and The York Brothers. In other words, I am thankful for old time music. Truth be told, I enjoy many genres of music. However, this year I have especially appreciated listening to guitar players who couldn't do it digitally, didn't do unlimited retakes, and actually had to own their mistakes - maybe it is because they sound like actual human beings playing those instruments.

I am thankful for root beer floats. I do not eat many sweets - don't even take sugar in my coffee. However, there is something about root beer floats that somehow realigns the universe in its proper course. I am not sure why that is, but the man or woman who discovers the science behind this phenomenon will probably be awarded a Nobel Prize. 

I am thankful for times when Su is a bit more with it and in a lot less pain. We do not get many of those days, but when they happen it is something very special indeed.

Although they do not really fall into the "common category," I am very thankful for life-long friends. I am thankful that I can be who I am with them and they still let me come back the next time. I am thankful I can share my hurts, questions and, even, doubts and they still continue to share the "long obedience in the same direction" with me.

I am thankful for authors like Henri Nouwen who wrote, "Gratitude goes beyond the 'mine' and 'thine' and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift... The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy."

Finally, I am very thankful for one of the basic necessities of life: water! I imagine you rarely think about it. But, we have spent many days and, even, weeks this year with the house's water supply cut off. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. I am so happy when we can open the tap and have water come out of it! Well, that and flush the toilet.

(Su wants you all to know that she is thankful for pumpkin pie, especially pumpkin pie made by Kari. She even had it for breakfast today!)