The day after Thanksgiving

On the day after Thanksgiving, I am still grateful for being able to share my life with a woman who will cook a huge turkey dinner with all the trimmings and, unable to serve everyone together due to circumstances, packs the food into containers and drives an hour to deliver the meals.

Of course, I am grateful to be able to share my life with the two slightly daft animals in this photo, who provide daily delight and occasional frustration. (The patio door in the background is the portal for comings and goings most engaged of all in the house.)

In this age of viral paranoia, I am grateful for my health that has given me nearly 68 years of life despite my constant neglect (Yes, doc, I know I need to exercise more …) and for family despite the distance between us.

I am very thankful that our refrigerator has the inevitable leftovers from the above-mentioned meal, and I probably will take a peek inside right after posting this post.

On the day after Thanksgiving, in short, I am mindful of all the reasons why every day — not one day a year — is an opportunity to reflect on all we have to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving: Building a new marina

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –

This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human Soul –

— Emily Dickinson

I spent Wednesday building this new marina for my fleet of frigates; today I am thankful for all the journeys I’ve taken in them.

Great artists steal, but it’s not theft

There’s something new under the sun … every day.

Each and every one of us is a creator. It’s in our nature.

When we create something, whether it’s a painting or a poem or a store display or a legal brief, we give something of ourselves that did not exist before we gave it.

Picasso or Faulkner — or neither or both — reportedly said, “Bad artists copy. Great artists steal.” But it’s not theft.

They did not “steal” from other creators in the sense that they took others’ property away, but they did take inspiration from others’ contributions and added their own seasoning.

Thousands of authors have written time travel stories, for example. They aren’t stealing from the earlier time travel storytellers; they are adding their vision to the concept and building something altogether new.

I daresay millions of authors have written stories about couples getting together and living happily ever after, or not.

Every day each of us adds to the sum of human endeavor, an ever-growing entity that is always bigger than it was yesterday.