Thanksgiving 2017

So, many of you have been asking … where have you been for the past few months?

Well, The Jade Sphinx was on temporary sabbatical while I finished a (long-overdue) book on books-adapted into films with critic and historian Jim Nemeth. But since that undertaking is drawing to a close, we will be able to post more regularly in the months to come. In fact, in the weeks before Christmas, I hope to share with you multiple book reviews that reflect new and noteworthy releases. More to come!

But before that, let’s think for a moment about Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving has always been our favorite holiday. It is solely predicated on the notion of giving thanks for the manifest blessings that we find around us, and for being mindful of the still, quiet miracle of our lives. Every day, wonders settle on my shoulders like so many snowflakes, and I feel deeply in touch with some greater mystery that lies beyond me.

Though uniquely American, Thanksgiving has always been our holiday least associated with ideology or creed.  The celebratory meal represents the bounty that is our lives; it is, simply, the holiday that is best shared with people we love.

I am delighted to report that as I coast through my 55^th year, I am still as in love with my Better Half as I was when we first met, 27 years ago. In no time at all, we will have been together for half (and then more than half) of my life, and I wonder how we spent those early years apart.

I’m thankful for all the dear friends and family who have trekked out to Southern California to spend time with us, and to see us build a new life in a new clime.

I’m thankful that Southern California is the paradise that I suspected it to be, and for exceeding all of my expectations.

And last, but certainly not least, I’m thankful for the new addition to our lives, our dog Lucas. He is a four-and-a-half year old rescue that we adopted from nearby Seal Beach. I have long wanted a dog, and Lucas has been everything I could’ve wanted, and more. We spend an obscene amount of time just gazing at him; he makes us laugh simply by doing things as elementary as walking across the room or drinking from his water dish. He is a gift that has enriched us beyond measure.

It is important to point out that for the past few years, Americans have spent so much time over the Thanksgiving table arguing – over politics, over values, over questions of identity – that we have forgotten what this holiday is really about.

It seems as if we are always on the brink of disaster and things are always trending to ruin.  I’ll be jiggered if I’m going to haul that hoo-haw out again this year, because I think pointing out the negatives in our lives doesn’t do us a whole lot of good.  So, yeah, things are terrible, it seems no one is happy with our current condition, and the world as we know it is changing so fast, no one knows what to hold onto.  It was much the same last year and will be much the same next year.  Been there, wrote that.

But I have faith in America and Americans. Good heavens, we created this holiday, the first nation ever to create a secular day of thanks.  Patriotism was never popular among most of my friends; any positive sentiments towards the country are mostly met with ironic dismissal or sneering condescension. But I think we are a great people, or, at least, we try to be.  I don’t know the future of our land any more than you, but I do know that Americans are capable of great things, great kindness, and unity.  That last quality – unity – has been in fairly short supply in recent years, but I think it will make a remarkable resurgence in the months and years to come.  We can but hope, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This Thanksgiving, make it a point to greet your family, friends and neighbors as people, and not as units of some political philosophy.  Love and nurture each other, and remember to be kind and ethical.  And, finally, remember to be thankful.  Thankful for the many blessings in your life, the bounty of the world around you, and for the quiet, ineffable mystery of your own existence.

Thanksgiving at The Jade Sphinx

It seems that I have penned a special Thanksgiving holiday note since the inception of this blog; but, somehow, I missed last year.  My diaries are currently in storage, and my memory is not up to the task of going back a whole 365 days.  What the devil was I doing last year?  So, now the pressure is on to be particularly memorable this year…

In reviewing what I wrote in previous years, I seem to always say that the country is in a perilous state, that things seem particularly dire this year, and that I don’t know how we’ll overcome it all.  But, it’s our responsibility to be happy, to be thankful, and to fully realize the quiet miracle of our lives every day.

Not doing that this year, and here’s why.

News flash:  we are always on the brink and things are always trending to disaster.  I’ll be jiggered if I’m going to haul that hoo-haw out again this year, because I think pointing out the negatives in our lives doesn’t do us a whole lot of good.  So, yeah, things are terrible, it seems no one is happy with the election (even the winner), and the world as we know it is changing so fast, no one knows what to hold onto.  It was much the same last year and will be much the same next year.  Been there, wrote that.

Instead, I’m going to tell you what I’m happy about. 

I’m happy to be an American, and delighted to now be a Californian.  We may not always be satisfied with the way our government and institutions work, but they do work and that is more than can be said of many countries.  The sunny little beach town I now call home after more than four decades in Gotham has reminded me again and again of the simple decency of most people, of forgotten arts of friendliness and neighborliness I had lost in the Big City, and demonstrated that nature has the upper-hand on us, and not the other way around.  I am surrounded by good people, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I am happy that I continue to be moved by beauty.  The dangerous thing about spending too much time with people who make a career of the arts is that one can stop feeling an emotional response to them.   I am delighted to say that I still gulp before masterful paintings, am still heady after great novels, and can laugh or cry at music.  (My taste tends to run towards the Great American Songbook, which always puts me in mind of Noel Coward’s wonderful putdown: Strange how potent cheap music is.)  I am delighted that this blog has everything from Michelangelo to Charles Schulz, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Finally, I’m glad to have faith in America and Americans.  Patriotism was never popular among most of my friends; any positive sentiments towards the country are mostly met with ironic dismissal or sneering condescension.  (A gift from the 1960s.)  But I think we are a great people, or, at least, we try to be.  I don’t know the future of our land any more than you, but I do know that Americans are capable of great things, great kindness, and unity.  That last quality – unity – has been in fairly short supply in recent years, but I think it will make a remarkable resurgence in the months and years to come.  We can but hope, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This Thanksgiving, make it a point to greet your family, friends and neighbors as people, and not as units of some political philosophy.  Love and nurture each other, and remember to be kind and ethical.  And, finally, remember to be thankful.  Thanks for the many blessings in your life, the bounty of the world around you, and for the quiet, ineffable mystery of your own existence.

Thanksgiving at The Jade Sphinx

It is almost impossible to write about Thanksgiving this year, given recent events.  The ills that affect us as a nation and as a people seem particularly pernicious as this winter rolls around.  Predatory (indeed, homicidal) police roam both large cities and small country hamlets, our government spies on innocent Americans without restraint, and our politicians seem engaged only in political games-playing while the nation literally burns.  Our policies at home and abroad unravel around us while the criminally rich are getting much richer and the poor getting much poorer.  And the Average Man, that once-great American invention, seems to have a big target painted on his back.

Worse still, as a people we have lost many of the yardsticks that made us great.  Neighbors are balkanized into warring factions, divided by our differences rather than united in our community.  Cooperation, common curtesy, simple decency and respect for one-another have completely eroded into the ugly spectacle of everyday American life.  A ride in the New York City subway is enough to make even the most optimistic of us agree with Mark Twain when he wrote: There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce.

And yet …

And yet … we here at The Jade Sphinx are happy.  We are not deluded that this is not a particularly dark period in our history, but we also know that is not the whole story.  With a little digging, one can find decency, humanity and compassion most everywhere. 

We see it in parents, couples, children, family and friends who truly love one another.  We see it in those few who work for the common good rather than personal gain.  And we see it in the eyes of people who care for us, in voices when lifted in song, and in the words and images of serious artists.

The anarchy that surrounds us is not the last word; it is often just background noise.  How many of us have particularly warm memories of periods when the world seemed most dire?  The horrors of man’s inhumanity to man are often sponged away by the bright furnace of warmth and humanity in their aftermath.  The good is not interred with our bones, rather, the poison of our evil is diluted and the good remains.

And, perhaps amazingly, we here are still optimistic.  Outside events shape our lives, but our internal outlook determines whether we are happy or not.  Life constantly amazes me, and the simple fact that I am alive takes me by surprise.  Life cannot sour me because I’m still living it – participating in the arts, laughing at jokes, enjoying books, eating delicious food, leering at beautiful people.  (We particularly like that last one.)  How can life be terrible when there is so much bounty to feed upon?  Despite the many negatives that life throws at us, we are grateful for our time, for being together, and for the miracle of life.

My goal during the past year of The Jade Sphinx has been to help, to some degree, to illustrate that miracle, and to help illustrate how that miracle works.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.  You may be in the darkness, but you are not of it. 

And now … I think we can now safely think about Christmas.

Tomorrow: Back to the Frick Collection!

Thanksgiving At The Jade Sphinx

Well, make no mistake about it – 2013 was a difficult year for us here at The Jade Sphinx.  A cluster of calamities sapped our attention, our energy and our peace of mind.  And yet …

Well, if you remember last year’s message, expect the mixture as before.  We here are happy to be alive, delighted in the time spent with those we love, and constantly amazed at the ways in which our lives play out.  I am convinced that those who are negative, or ironic, or simply jaded (a repellant attitude, if ever there was one), are missing a vital fact of life – that while it’s often harrowing, it’s always surprising and definitely worth living.

Though uniquely American, Thanksgiving has always been our holiday least associated with ideology or creed.  It is simply a day set aside to be thankful for the many good things in our lives.  And the celebratory meal represents the bounty that is our lives – the many courses, tastes and phases of a unique and sensual experience.  Though nonreligious, Thanksgiving is sacramental, best shared with people we love.

Thanksgiving has also always been the gateway to the holiday season, and I look forward to this year’s revelries with particular relish.  Christmastime is the best moment to stop and contemplate the quiet miracle of our lives, and that seems more imperative to us this year than ever.  Though we are assaulted daily by cultural and political noise, we continue to find grace notes and things of great beauty that make life meaningful.  I am frankly amazed at some of the magnificent novels I’ve read this year, the pictures that I’ve seen, the music that I’ve heard and the simple human kindnesses I’ve witnessed.  The fine arts provide succor and inspiration, validation and exploration, relief and insight, and the consolations of the arts have been something quite wonderful this year.  But all of this bounty means nothing without human connection.  The arts may enhance and help define these connections, but they can never supplant them.

Happy Thanksgiving – and onward to a warm, rewarding and nurturing holiday season.

Thanksgiving at The Jade Sphinx

Today’s Thanksgiving treat is an illustration from William Joyce’s delightful A Day With Wilbur Robinson.

If I may intrude with some autobiography, it has been an interesting year for your correspondent and his loved ones.  We’ve suffered loss within the family, have faced a number of pressures in our businesses, and have watched with dismay as a global situation seemed to get progressively worse.

But, for all of that, we are still happy.  Trite as this sounds (and trust me, I do know it sounds trite), as I get older I really do believe that there is no way to happiness, and that happiness is simply the way.  I am wonderstruck by our mere existence, and wouldn’t have it any other way.  Irony and ennui will never seep into our bones.  Despite the many negatives that life throws at us, we are grateful for our time, for being together, and for the miracle of life. 

My goal during the past year of The Jade Sphinx has been to help, to some degree, to illustrate that miracle, and to help illustrate how that miracle works.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.  I think we can now safely say we are on our way to the holiday season.