Everybody Mangia!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we stuff our faces and bellies on this day of thanks and appreciation let us not forget how fortunate we are. Fortunate to live in this country of freedom and prosperity. Fortunate to have the mobility to hike, run, bike, ski and paddle in an array of wild lands preserved through the hard works of others before us. Others who saw the value in these land beyond development and exploitation.

I am thankful for my health-my life-my disposition-my history and my destiny.

I am thankful too for all of the wonderful Thanksgivings of my past, especially the ones spent on Truman Street in Bridgeport Connecticut at la casa de mia nona. It was there that I learned my first Italian word-Mangia- The command form of "to eat"-as in "Everybody eat!"

Mia Nona taught me a few other things too-and one was to be appreciative of what you have. She left Sicily as a young girl. Lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and September 11, 2001. She saw a lot and none of it got her down. She was just happy to have her home, her family, and her cooking! I hope they serve a mean meatball in heaven, Nona and to honor you on this Thanksgiving we shall eat. "God-a-bless"is what I'm sure she would say to all of this. Happy Thanksgiving!

(photo of me in Cantabria Spain taken by John Osaki)