I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
*****
And I'm especially grateful for medical science, without which neither he nor I would be here. So let's pray for the failure of our current President's profoundly irrational and destructive determination to socialize and thereby ruin the best health care in the world:
Thanks, Bob.
ReplyDeleteA blessed and thoughtful Thanksgiving to all!
"And I'm especially grateful for medical science, without which neither he nor I would be here. So let's pray for the failure of our current President's profoundly irrational and destructive determination to socialize and thereby ruin the best health care in the world"
ReplyDeleteAmen.
And what Abe said.
And to you too, Bob. Among all the things for which I am thankful, OC honestly ranks pretty high up the list.
ReplyDeleteThanks!!
Don't chime in much, but de-lurking to say "Thanks, Bob" and a happy Day to all- who really know how to be thankful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post, Bob, and all that you give. God bless all racoonistas.
ReplyDeleteI, too, am profoundly thankful for modern medicine. And grateful, too, to everyone here who has helped broaden my understanding of the cosmos and of human nature.
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving, Raccoons!
wv wishes a state of satedia to all.
Special thanks for Mrs. G., our warriors and the liberty they fight to preserve, microbreweries, Martin Logan Speakers, James Brown and all the other giants of Cosmic American Music, Frithjof Schuon, Valentin Tomberg and all other preservers of the Vertical Tradition, Dennis Prager, and my readers, without whom my writing would be impossible.
ReplyDeleteSmall Pebble-->Big Ripple:
ReplyDeleteAnd specific thanks to you, for the favor of turning me on to Josef Pieper, whose Happiness and Contemplation is the meal I chose to ingest today.
Satisfying!
I, TURKEY (a poem)
ReplyDeleteIt was always there, this calm recognition
Of my destiny, the gentle tide that would sweep
Me across snowy fields and through the
Brittle thickets and tingling streams
To the moment of surrender in blinding light -
I seem to remember the angel's patient lecture,
His loving ministration that filled the hollow
Of my bones with grace and direction -
Oh, all the animals were there of course,
But it was I who truly understood
Better than even Cat and Dog, understood
The symmetry of service and sacrifice
Writ in nature's lineaments, there, I have said it –
I shall wrestle with the President of the United States
In the yearly photo-op!
And I shall lay down to die, over and over
Again and again across November,
My sleepy meat divinely distributed
Among earth’s Shepherds
And do enjoy the leftovers!
For this is my task and I fulfill
It in love and service –
Yet I rise again, Great God a’Mighty!
As will you, consumer of my flesh,
In your own alien way -
Nice Poem Will.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'd dearly love to see, and it might signal much more to follow... I'd dearly love to see a President with the balls to accept the Turkey, kill it, cook it, and serve it up for the Thanksgiving Day Feast.
It's the little things.
Happy Thanksgiving to Bob and his family and all the raccoons.
ReplyDeleteVan, Sarah Palin will be the first one to eat the White House turkey!
Sean
Thank you, Van -
ReplyDeleteNow please honor the turkey's cosmic sentiments and go gnaw on a turkey leg.
Oh, Sarah and dead turkeys are a longstanding tradition.
ReplyDeleteWill said "Now please honor the turkey's cosmic sentiments and go gnaw on a turkey leg."
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the thought Will. More than you can imagine.
It's 10:23... pm... and we... still... no... eatem... turkey.
The [insert loOong blue streak of profanity here] computer age stove [repeat] broke somewhere in the midst of cooking the turkey. A computer module. In a stove. WTF!!! Who was the [repeat with emphasis] moron who saw their computer bluescreen on a regular basis, and said "Yeah! We should put that in charge of the stove!"
No possibility of tinkering, no valve to tap, wiggle, adjust, just 'blink-blink-blink'
argh.
Probably broke early on.
Reeeealy early on.
We've got the [repeat again] bird out in the barbecue with the lid down, hoping it'll cook... looks promising... but OMG... we're all so [repeat and repeat again] hungry.
I will certainly be thankful for dinner when it comes.
Right now I'm thankful for Scotch.
I'm also thankful that in our lives, it's possible that having dinner delayed can seem like such a huge problem.
But most of all... yeah... scotch. Mucho thanko's.
;- )
Van -
ReplyDeleteYes, scotch is a cosmic sentiment unto itself. But -
The turkey is lonely and yearns for its destiny.
Had thanksgiving with beloved (but generally lefty friends). I guess I keep thinking they would realize how ungrateful it is to complain about abundantly we live (funny just how much those who never lived through a food shortage can complain).
ReplyDeleteSo I want to say what here might be obvious but is out of bounds in lefty circles:
I am thankful for this great country that figured out how to unleash humankind's great creative potential for abundance.
I, too, am thankful for our staggeringly amazing Cosmo-American musical tradition. Particularly the deep ocean explored by our great lineage of improvisers. Lately the infinite music of Miles Davis is topping my personal list of inspiration.
I am thankful that though we all have the freedom to live falsely (within limits), that more importantly we have the great opportunity to do and know what is True, Good and Beautiful.
I am thankful for the insights that I have received here at one cosmos. I am thankful for the glimpses into the infinite depths of O that I have experienced here. And though I usually don't say much, and I am probably not one of the more incisive commenters,I am glad to be part of the conversation.
I hope everyone has had a great thanksgiving!
Will, the poem is perfect.
ReplyDeleteAnd Van, I hope you finally had some turkey, and that it was worth the wait.
Outstanding poem, Will! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bob for some of the very best inprov I have ever heard.
And thanks to all my fellow Raccoons.
You guys are top notch in my book. :^)
Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a Good night.
i spent much of yesterday watching Andy Kaufman rarities; boy is HE missed!
ReplyDeletefree, scroll down @
http://subcin.com/
Baking a Turkey in a Bar-B-Que update:
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased to announce that our turkey fulfilled it's destiney at approx 11:30p.m. last night.
And it was dee-lish.
You should read his proclamation for a day of national fasting! The man is obviously a right wing zealot. :)
ReplyDeleteHoos