Here it comes, People.
Another Thanksgiving. How’s your hope holding up? I have none. I’m okay with it. I guess hope isn’t necessary to experience gratitude. It would seem almost the opposite would be a better foundation for true gratitude, total hopelessness. Then, feeling grateful really means something. Your life might depend on it.
Are you spending the holiday with family? Do you have a strategy? A game plan? Don’t go in blind. I know you know the players but you still have to watch your flank. You are heading into the ring. The family ring. The turkey day cage match.
People get older. Things change. You may not know some of the players' moves anymore. The object of the holiday is to get through the week without taking any major hits to your sense of self on any level and not cause drama or pain in others. Good luck, army of one.
I write this to remind myself. I’ve already gotten irritated by events and things that my brain is making up about what is going to happen. I’m already aggravated. That’s how my brain works. It plays it all out, the worst of it. In reality, it never plays out as bad or as good as my mind creates. That’s my unconscious prep. I don’t think it’s a good practice. Keeps me in my head.
That is a problem I forget I have. Being in the present. If I am in relation to someone, I can be me in the present. If I am on stage, I am in the present. The rest of the time I have to fight the good fight to not live in my head or on my phone.
I’ll try to remember we are all getting older and we aren’t going to be here that long. I should just be aware of when I’m about to say something hurtful or angry or weird. Except to my uncle. I’m just looking for a reason to unload on that guy.
See, even when I write that down, I know that when I see him, a whole lifetime of knowing that guy will come back to me. I’ll realize he is just a guy getting older with some really wrong-minded ideas and thoughts that I have to call him out on. Wait. That didn’t end right.
Be careful out there in the family battles. Have a good holiday.
Today I talk to Ridley Scott about as many of his movies as I could. Thursday I talk to the film critic Jason Bailey about NYC movies. It is a live episode that we recorded at the Paris Theater in NYC when I was just there. Great talks.
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monday and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
Turkey Day Cage Match.
