\t\t\t\tThis is the season of giving thanks. It is easy to do when you have so much. I am happy that our country has such a holiday but the regret is that it we don’t do it once a week, or maybe once a day. I was surprised to learn that the day, which was proclaimed by President Lincoln, came about as the result of a widow’s determined politicking. Her name was Sarah Joseph Hale. Her husband was a lawyer who died young leaving her with four children at age 33. She never had a formal education but went on to be the first American woman to publish a novel, and wrote the classic verse “Mary Had a Little Lamb” which has touched the lives of virtually ever child who ever spoke English. She worked on getting Thanksgiving Day for 40 years and also managed to get a memorial built for the dead at Bunker Hill.<\/p>\n
Most of us remember our Thanksgiving dinner of turkey and yams, etc. There is a story that supposedly tells us why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day. It was said that the Pilgrims made arrangements to go up and sit with the Indians to reach agreements about peace and territory. One of the Pilgrims took a turkey along to give to them or eat with them .The Indians didn\u2019t like turkey so it wasn\u2019t eaten or left with them. When the Pilgrims returned to their area they had the turkey in Thanksgiving for having made a settlement and agreement with the Indians.<\/p>\n
Whether it is a true story or not turkey has become the dinner of Thanksgiving Day. We have participated in many such dinners and I can recall at our home on Dorcas Street that we had sometimes as many as twenty plus family members. We will never forget are first Thanksgiving here in Florida. We went to my nephew\u2019s home here in Shore Acres where we had stayed many times before and ate outside in the back of the house where they have creek running by. We made a point of sending this information to as many family and friends as we could!\u00a0 It was our way of showing them how different Florida was from Pennsylvania in November. Since then though we haven\u2019t done it again. We usually got to June\u2019s son Michael\u2019s home in Land of Lakes or they have come here.<\/p>\n
There are sad memories of November too. My mother died on November 15th, 1952. My oldest sister, Winnie, became my new mother and she died on the same day, November 15th, in 1998. My sister Therese a Holy Child nun died on November 18th. Thinking of them reminds me of how they loved and served others, for that I am grateful!<\/p>\n
Many happy memories come when I think of the group of my running friends who got together on Thanksgiving morning to run the Wissahickon trail, about eleven miles. Among them was my longtime friend and running companion, Bill King, now gone to his eternal rest. He and I spent twenty years or so running together all over the USA. We made the Thanksgiving Day morning run in order to remove the guilt when we overate at dinner that night! These days they have a run around Fairmount Park of five miles called the \u2018Turkey Trot\u2019 on Thanksgiving morning. I am happy to report that several of my children, and grandchildren, and a nephew usually make that run!<\/p>\n
November is also the month of elections. On my return from the service I\u00a0 participated as worker with the leader of the ward, at the polls on Election Day, and ran for office in 1966. I won the primary to be the candidate but lost in the general election. It resulted though in the Mayor hiring me as a deputy commissioner, and later a commissioner during his term in office. Later I was appointed to the Jury Commission and when they added my service time to my City employment time I had 28 years of City service and thus a good pension. Another of those blessing for which we give thanks! To me being involved in politics was a natural and it continued here in Florida for a few years until the length of time at the polling place and some health problems made it too difficult. But it always upset me to hear people say they didn\u2019t even bother to vote! Our rights carry with them a duty, it is to vote.\u00a0 The gift of freedom carries this duty with it. When we look around the world we see so many places where freedom doesn\u2019t exist\u00a0 we should be grateful for the right to be free by fulfilling the duty to it, i.e., vote!<\/p>\n
Speaking of being \u2018free\u2019 we have also a right to complain about what our elected officials are doing. One today has many complaints about two wars that seem to be nothing more than assertions of our might! We never did find all those things, which were suppose to make the Iraq war necessary and now eight years in Afghanistan we, or I at least, still can\u2019t figure out why we are there. We were going to go get Al Qaeda but he is still at large. In a recent editorial in Commonweal I liked this paragraph re Afghanistan. What does \u2018to win\u2019 mean in Afghanistan? \u201cThe administration has yet to explain what it would mean to \u2018win\u2019, and what human cost it is willing to accept. Some intermediate strategy short of withdrawal or full scale escalation \u2013one that would allow measurable progress towards well-defined goals \u2013 maybe the most prudent course.\u201d We hear politicians decry about allowing abortion for its taking of a life, but nothing from the same mouths about the 4000 or so lives being given away in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Why?\u00a0 To me it is a great contradiction to complain about abortion and ignore the loss of lives in unexplained wars!<\/p>\n
Did you ever wonder where some of our expressions come from? Like the \u201cRoad to hell is paved with good intentions\u201d? Well I don\u2019t know where a lot of them originated but this one came from Sam Johnson,\u00a0 creator of the English Dictionary. Some of his others I like are: \u201cFriendship, \u2018the wine of life\u2019 should, like a well stocked cellar, be thus continually renewed.\u201d \u201c If a man does not make acquaintances as he advances through life, he will find himself left alone. A man should keep his friendship in constant repair\u201d; \u201cThe belief of immortality is impressed upon all men, and all men act under the impression of it, however they may talk, though, perhaps they may be scarcely sensible of it\u201d. We could write an essay on each one of these thoughts since they succinctly set forth ideas that are universal.<\/p>\n
I came across a word I hadn\u2019t seen in some while, it was \u201cplacebo\u201d. In Latin it can mean, \u201cit seems good or pleasing\u201d. Some years ago I read\u00a0 an article in the Atlantic Monthly about this word. It was about Linus Pauling, an Nobel prize winner in Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962) and his book entitled \u201cVitamin C and the Common Cold\u201d(1970).\u00a0 In it he argued that large doses of vitamin C could prevent the onset of a cold or help minimize the symptoms.<\/p>\n
There was however no real evidence to support the claim. Later studies have shown that Vitamin C does not prevent colds. It however raised the question, \u201cIs it maybe a \u2018placebo\u2019 effect?\u201d A placebo effect is a pill or medicine prescribed more for psychological than physiological effects. In a book entitled \u201cThe Powerful Placebo\u201d it states \u201cthe phenomenon has been considered clinically to have important effects.\u201d The placebo effect points to the importance of perception and the brain\u2019s role in physical health. I have been a recipient over the years of that effect. When I began running back in the 70\u2019s I always made sure to take a good bit of vitamin C along with other vitamins to keep me from getting a cold! If it is only a \u201cplacebo effect\u201d then so be it. As one of the commentators noted, since it was a Nobel Prize winner that held that opinion, maybe there was a \u2018placebo\u2019 effect i.e. believing that it works!<\/p>\n
Till next time, Pax Tecum!\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is the season of giving thanks. It is easy to do when you have so much. I am happy that our country has such a holiday but the regret is that it we don’t do it once a week, or maybe once a day. I was surprised to learn that the day, which was … <\/p>\n