Thank You (Faletinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
@terrylyons - Sly Stone reminds us to be Thankful in the Year 2020
By Terry Lyons
BOSTON - In 2020, on the eve of Thanksgiving Day in the year of the dreaded Coronavirus, just WHAT do we have to be thankful for? Without a doubt, without any argument from anyone anywhere, it’s been a HORRENDOUS year.
But, there’s HOPE.
HOPE means, “Somehow, someway we’ll figure our way out of this mess. No matter how bad things seem, we endure.” There’s hope and this column dedicated to The Way Back. It’s dedicated to the ones I love. Sly Stone reminded all;
“I want to thank you falettinme be mice elf agin
Thank you falettinme be mice elf agin
Dance to the music, all nite long
Everyday people, sing a simple song
Mama's so happy, Mama start to cry
Papa still singin', you can make it if you try
I want to thank you falettinme be mice elf agin
(Different strokes for different folks, yeah)
Thank you falettinme be mice elf agin
Flamin' eyes of people fear burnin' into you
Many men are missin' much hatin' what they do
Youth and truth are makin' love, dig it for a starter, now
Dyin' young is hard to take, sellin' out is harder
Thank you falettinme be mice elf agin
I want to thank you falettinme be mice elf agin”
Yes, we can be thankful for Sly & the Family Stone!
On the eve of Thanksgiving 2020, this reporter thought it wise to stop and think about the blessings - many hidden - in such a challenging year. If we stop and think, we realize the things we’ve been taking for granted, probably since 2001 when the Towers fell to terrorism and the world was vaulted into utter turmoil in these United States.
What did it take to make me stop and think?
For me and my family our reclamation stems from a little eight and a half pound ball of fluffy fur. She is a puppy named Penny (Lane) and she arrived at our Boston-area home this past Saturday, November 21, 2020.
Penny joined our family at the perfect time, and that TIME is largely behind our decision to adopt this wonderful puppy at this particular time, when WE have extra time.
What was Penny’s first contribution?
She reminded us of the importance of family - immediate and extended. For this column, I’ll concentrate on “immediate.” The on-going and still very sad by-product of COVID-19 is the limitations placed on the ability to meet with the extended family. That issue has become a war of the words and actions in the USA this week, as travelers a‘gonna travel and families want to meet. Limitations of a max of 10 people set off alarms for families of 11, exclaiming, “But Aunt Becky just got out of jail, she needs to be here.”
Penny became the “Kew Gardens Interchange” for our family. She’s a meeting place. She’s a bridge. She’s a complex, crossroads of highway. She’s able to interact with four immediate family members on four different planes. She’s sweet. She’s amazingly social for such a young pup and we’re doing the very first thing every good dog trainer in the world stresses at the outset - build a bond, build trust.
The rest flows from there.
Taking a step back?
On Penny’s first trip to The Vet, we were once again reminded of the importance of health. These challenging times have made us rightfully worry about work, finances, unemployment, viability of businesses (past and future), budgeting, and (for some of us) the massive change in retirement planning. Our health remains most important.
For the younger generation, in college or just graduated from school, they are entering the toughest job market since the 2009 financial meltdown and the near upheaval of the auto industry. For college juniors and seniors, the future, internships, previously promised jobs, and the ability to re-locate all pose difficult and challenging times and decisions.
For high school juniors and seniors, the college application process marches on, although visits to prospective schools were limited or shutdown completely. The uncertainty of all the different situations, underscored by the need to take academically challenging course work via “Zoom” doubles down on the difficulties at such an important time of life.
Where does it all leave us at this time of year, a time when we value family gatherings at the holidays, with hopes of good times, renewing family ties, fun, travel, growth, love, peace on earth and goodwill towards men.
The situation today calls for the lowering of expectations.
This year, we must try our best to keep it simple.
In some cases, although it’s a lonely thought, people might choose to wipe the calendar clean and move on, pretending the holidays are cancelled for 2020. Let the stress of the holidays be reduced to watching the NFL games on Thursday and the NBA games on Christmas Day. The presents are wrapped in the ability to remain in the present, stop worrying about the future and let the past be gone.
In our case, underlined by the amazing timing and our luxury of replacing all things Thanksgiving and Christmas - including presents and maybe even a Christmas tree - with our pouncing, bounding 8.5 lbs bundle of joy and enthusiasm. Instead, we’re concentrating on things like “Unconditional Love,” the glorious time of “Peace and Quiet,” when all things settle down and our new puppy settles into her new house/crate and pillow with a favorite toy. Most importantly. I see us “Working as a four-player team” to help train and take good care of our new family member.
For us, the parents of college-aged adult children, now fully independent, confident and well-educated daughters, taking care of a puppy is a throwback to the very first days of taking care of a newborn.
It’s the ultimate challenge of life and it’s “on the job training,” for sure. All the advice in the world is of “no help” because every child in the world is different. what works for one kid, doesn't work at all for another. And, it’s the same for puppies!
They change quickly, from sleepy, peaceful balls of fluff in a crate to energy-filled maniacs of fun, play and ankle and sock biting. Everything is new and that is another refreshing realization to appreciate the simpler things in life, like the leaves falling and blowing down he street, a crisp autumn day - both blue skies and gray days.
Watching our puppy discover things brings a new lease on our lives.
Maybe, most importantly, it makes us appreciate each other and the fact we, a family of four, might not have four-person gatherings much more? Maybe they’ll be people added, and that would be wonderful, but maybe - as we all must recognize - the dreaded Coronavirus can strike any one of us down in a matter of days, a week or longer. That is a scary, bleak thought. It stops you in your tracks, especially when you hear the noise of someone saying, “it ‘only’ kills one percent, or ‘it’s like the flu which kills people every year.’”
That’s frightening, as there’s an on-going ignorance and belittling of any one single death for any one single family - never mind the 1,412,223 global deaths (259,976 in the USA), as reported by Johns Hopkins University as of the morning of November 25th.
Devastating.
To bring it all home, let’s stop and appreciate the simple things, treasure family - immediate and extended (and I am particularly grateful for the unconditional love of my 95-year old Mom and my older brother who works so hard and does so much as the distance between Boston and Long Island, NY limits our ability to visit “in-person” for fear of spreading the virus unintentionally. Special “shout-out” to the Martin portion of our family, too. Many times, we just don’t know what we would do without them all.
Here’s a few other random Thanksgiving thoughts, thanks and mentions (please don’t feel left out, as I could mention a thousand or more and time/space doesn't allow for that today:
Condolences to the family of Boston Celtics legend and Basketball Hall of Famer (player and coach) Tommy Heinsohn and a show of appreciation to Celtics’ commentator/play-by-play man Mike Gorman.
Thanks to The Keswick boys (and girls, too).
Thanks to the NBA, the WNBA, the NHL, Tennis (especially USTA), and to the PGA Tour which is often overlooked as writers pontificate about the great comebacks in sports. I’m looking forward to the January re-start for the Tour and two of my favorite tournaments in the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui and The SONY in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Thanks also goes out to the NFL, College Football, ice hockey and, now College Basketball which are all trying mightily to complete or begin their seasons.
Our condolences go out to the family of the late Travis Roy. I expect everyone reading know his story as a Boston U freshman ice hockey star who was injured (paralyzed) eleven seconds into his first shift as a collegian. Similarly, continued thoughts of encouragement to Denna Laing, a star player for the Boston Pride who suffered a spinal injury out at Gillette Stadium in a prelim to the 2016 NHL Winter Classic. She inspires us all. Although there are hundreds who could be mentioned, we’ll close with our condolences and thoughts of continued support to the family of former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates who passed away December 9, 2019, about a year ago.
Happy Thanksgiving 🦃 and I wonder what we’ll be doing today?
Among others!