Thanks. Giving.

I first posted this back in Ott-Eight, the day before Thanksgiving, and I decided I’d edit it a bit and then repost it today, to kind of remind me of where I was then, what I thought then, and what I wanted out of life.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Happy Thanksgiving from Bob and Carlos in Smallville!

Not to brag, but I've been told that I am an extremely polite person. I was raised on Please and Thank You, Yes Ma'am, No Sir, and I still act that way today.

True story: I was selected for jury duty back when we lived in Miami and when they were questioning us in the courtroom, it was my turn to stand. Well, it was a narrow aisle, so I put my hands behind my back, and as the judge and the lawyers began to ask their questions, I always answered Yes sir, No Sir.

The judge stopped for a second and smiled. "Are you in the military?" he asked.

"No," I said, "I was raised by a military man and a Southern woman."

True story: A few years before that, while living in California, I was in a grocery store buying a birthday cake for a co-worker. I asked if I may please order a cake. May I please have a name iced onto it? I pleased and thank you'd my way through the ordering process and finally the girl left to go in the back and finish my order.

But then, just before disappearing to that back room, she turned around and said to me, "I think you are the most polite person I've ever waited on."

I smiled and said, "Could you just shut up and ice my damn cake!"

When all else fails slip into sarcasm. That's my motto. But I digress.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, probably because there are no gifts involved, except for the gift of time spent with loved ones and friends; the gift of thanks. This is a day of thanks for Americans; a truly American holiday, like 4th of July, but one we celebrate not with picnics and beer, firecrackers and sparklers, but with a meal we share with friends and family.

I have so much to be thankful for this year.

Yes, the usual family and friends and health and happiness, blah blah blah, everyone says that.

But I am also thankful that we are an America on the verge of a new day, when we are all considered equal. Eleven years ago, Carlos and I couldn’t be legally married anywhere in this country, and now we stand at sixteen states and the District of Columbia where we are considered equal.

I’m thankful for that.

I am thankful that the Supreme Court stepped in to say to the entire country that Prop 8 and DOMA are unconstitutional. Where are men [and women] are created equal should mean just that. Complacency doesn't get you anywhere; and simply asking for what's right doesn't always work. Demanding what's right is what's sometimes necessary.

I am thankful that Project runway All-Stars is almost over because I’m realizing that All-stars doesn’t really mean what I think it means.

I am thankful for Ryan Murphy who can create both Glee and American Horror Story.

I am thankful for cold mornings and blue skies.

I am thankful for small dogs and cats because, well, I'm bigger than them and I will always beat them. Just channeling Joan Crawford and Christina at the pool.

I am thankful for......Carlos, Dad, and my Mom for whom Thanksgiving was always her holiday; cooking for her family was my mother’s greatest joy and a great gift to all of us. I am thankful to my sister Jeri, who has shown a remarkably brave and thoughtful face in her battle against lung cancer; I am thankful for her husband Tom and their girls for all they do for one another; I am thankful to my brother David and his family, and to uncles and aunts and cousins.

I am thankful for leaves changing color and drifting to the ground on a breeze.

I am thankful for music and pest and soft blankets and breathing and speaking, and having a voice when I speak.

I am thankful for thinking being feeling loving living.

For Life.

And all it encompasses.

To Life.

Thanks.