{Straight From the Heart} *Substitute Dinner* 11/25/99
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I hope this email finds you healthy, happy, and with a heart full of gratitude for the many things in our lives that we take for granted!
Michael
OUR SUBSTITUTE THANKSGIVING DINNER
by Joseph Walker
Every year about this time, Americans devote an entire day
to giving thanks for the blessings of life. We call this
day Thanksgiving (one thing for which we can all be grateful
this year is that the same person who named Thanksgiving
wasn't also in charge of naming Christmas, Easter and
Valentine's Day, or we might have had Giftgiving, Egggiving
and Lingeriegiving, respectively).
Actually, Thanksgiving is the perfect name for this day of .
. . well, thanks-giving. If we called it something clever
-- you know, like Pilgrimas or Squashter -- its real meaning
might get lost in symbolism or cluttered with commercialism.
As it is, Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks. Oh, sure,
it is also a day to gather with the family, eat turkey and
watch football. But when it comes right down to it, giving
thanks is high on the list of Things To Do on the fourth
Thursday of November -- even when you have to search for
something for which to be grateful.
I remember one such Thanksgiving, about 18 years ago.
During the previous year, we had weathered the first major
crisis of our marriage, and while we were doing pretty well
pulling together as a family, there were still scars and
tender places. We were also struggling financially while
living in a cramped apartment. To top it off, Anita was
just days away from delivering our third child, and she was
miserable (we men will never fully appreciate the
physiological transformation that turns the light, happy
"Honey, we're having a baby!" to a deep, throaty "Get this
thing out of me!").
I was looking forward to Thanksgiving as a day off from work
and a day to spend some time with my family. But I'll be
honest -- mostly, I was looking forward to the food.
Anita's family had invited us to share Thanksgiving dinner
with them, and Anita's Mom is a great cook. Besides, I love
Thanksgiving dinner, from the turkey (dark meat, please!) to
the mashed potatoes to that green bean casserole with the
fried onions on top. It has always been my favorite meal,
but never more so than during this year when our food budget
hadn't allowed for extras, and Anita's pregnancy had turned
her taste toward soups, salads and licorice ice cream. I
was ready to sink my teeth into a drumstick, and to keep
eating until you couldn't tell if it was me or Anita who was
about to give birth.
Unfortunately, Anita awakened Thanksgiving morning feeling
more miserable than usual. We kept hoping that she would
perk up by the time we needed to leave for dinner, but by
early afternoon it was clear she wouldn't be going "over the
river and through the woods" -- or anywhere else, for that
matter. And I certainly wasn't going without her, no matter
how loudly that drumstick was beckoning. So we called and
made our apologies to her family, and then I started poking
around in the kitchen for an appropriate substitute
Thanksgiving dinner. Tuna? No. Tomato soup? No. Mac and
cheese? Not even if we could make the macaroni stick
together in the shape of a turkey.
So I packed up Amy and Joe Jr. and went shopping. Of
course, that was easier said than done, since no stores in
our small town were open. We finally found a store about 20
miles away that had three turkey TV dinners left. We took
them home and split them between the four of us.
Sounds sort of pathetic, doesn't it? But as far as I am
concerned, it remains one of the best Thanksgivings ever.
Somehow our lack of abundance helped me to see more clearly
the blessings we did have. Instead of focusing on a
sumptuous feast, I focused on three-going-on-four people who
I loved more than life itself. We were happy. We were
together. We had a roof over our heads. And we had food --
such as it was -- on our table. We had much for which to
give thanks.
And as we all know, giving thanks is what Thanksgiving is
all about.
Joe Walker
Valuesguy@netscape.net
Joe Walker has been writing professionally since 1980, when he left
college to join the staff of a daily metropolitan newspaper. For 10
years -- including six as the paper's TV columnist and critic -- he was
part of the mainstream media, and was painfully aware of the
overwhelming negativity of contemporary journalism. Joe says, "Nobody
was looking for real solutions to the problems society was facing; they
were just looking for someone or something to blame the problems on." So
in 1990 Joe began writing ValueSpeak, a weekly syndicated column that
attempts to look at contemporary issues from the perspective of
traditional values. Joe and his wife wife, Anita, are parents of five
children, with their first grandchild due shortly.
You'll love his new book, How Can you Mend a Broken
Spleen! Ordering is simple and fast at the following Amazon address:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1573453005/heart
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REQUESTS:
From: jumscheid@juno.com (Jerry Umscheid)
Michael,
Could you please pass on this prayer request. The father of my
son's best freind died a few days ago and is being buried today. John
was in his early forties and his son, John Jr. is only 12. His wife,
Bobbi, is 7 months pregnant. I know they need God's love, comfort and
guidance at this time. Im sure, on top of it all, the mother has many
financial concerns, they were a "two-income" family and she will have to
stop working soon to have the baby. Please take a moment to pray
whatever is on your heart for this family.
Many Blessings to You !!!
Jerry Umscheid
Olathe, Kansas
I would also like to ask all of you to pray for my little sister Christina.
She is so dehydrated that she might have to be hospitalized, and the doctors
told her there is a possibility she may have menengitis. Keep her in your
thoughts and prayers this Thanksgiving.
Michael
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What's the world coming to! Michael has his own weekly column on being a daddy!!
This week: Michael takes Caleb to his first swimming lessons!
Click on this link to go to ChildFun.com!
Daddy's View | Michael's Weekly Column
or type in the following in your browser:
http://www.childfun.com/dads/michael.shtml
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Thought For The Day:
"A great person is always willing to be little."
Verse for the Day:
"But the greatest among you shall be your servant."
Matthew 23:11
Kid's Thought for the day:
"Be the first to make footprints in new snow."
Parent's Thought For The Day
"A father is a thing that growls when it feels good...and laughs very loud when
it's scared to death."
(Paul Harvey)
Coach's Thought For The Day
"The more you know about your players, the more you treat them differently."
(Bob Bozied)
Deep Thought For The Day:
"Tell a man that there are 400 billion stars and he'll believe you. Tell him a
bench has wet paint and he has to touch it."
_
/_/\/\ MICHAEL T. POWERS
\_\ / THUNDER27@aol.com http://members.aol.com/Thunder27/index.html
/_/ \ "For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
\_\/\ \ Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live for the Son
\_\/ of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20