Giving Thanks

Yesterday I was walking w/my dogs down Fairfax Ave in West Hollywood when my dog Ranger pulled towards the Chapel doorway of a Church. Lying on the cement steps in the doorway was a man with his coat pulled over his head sleeping. Its been a tough year for many people. Started thinking about what it must have been like for the Plymouth settlers at the first Thanksgiving. They were probably grateful to just to have food. Then I thought about a friend I once had who may have been the most grateful person I ever knew, Tony. When I met him his body had been completely immobilized from the neck down and he lived in hospital bed. I would visit Tony with his Mom and while she would talk to the staff about his condition, he and I would talk. We talked about events going on in the world, sports & celebrities. Invariably he would ask how I was doing, at the time, I was out of work and used to give his mom lifts to the hospital so I could get out of the house. There he was trapped in a body that could not move, encouraging me. I’m sure you can guess how his part of this story ended. A brave and kind man. whom I miss.
When I got home, I spent the afternoon going through my computer’s hard drives cataloging recordings of songs. Trying to pick the ones to compile a CD from. I came across a recording of a tune I do called Thank You. It really seemed to fit where I’m at at right now, but was kind of rough- the feel was there but it was more of a song demo than a final master recording. Thought it would be nice to post it up for my friends, but there was not enough time to track it from scratch. The idea persisted. After dinner I went in to the living room, fired up my recording rig, added a new bass track and did a rough mix. Would have loved the luxury of a do-over, but being timely trumps being perfect.
My late friend Tony, gave me a wonderful gift. I’m starting to realize what that is. What we have or don’t matters, but the true gift is that we are at all. Happy Thanksgiving, enjoy!