Searching for the Silver Lining....

DISCLAIMER: This post will be vague on certain things, because certain family oriented stuff is exactly that. It stays in-house. And everything turned out OK in the end, so it's not a big issue anymore anyways.

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As some of you may know, Thanksgiving was an interesting day for me. I say interesting, because although it wasn't any fun as it played out, I don't think it was 100% negative.

First off, before anyone starts getting thoughts of bashing my head in, I will say that there was absolutely nothing positive about what happened. In fact, I wish it hadn't. But... it did.

Anyways, let me get to the point.

Thanksgiving at my folks house has always been an event to enjoy. Mostly it has always been sitting around the table and cracking jokes. And if you know my family, you know once one of us gets on a roll, everyone else feeds off it, and it all becomes a race to see who can pop off the best joke. The joke that makes Dad either tell us to knock it off, or makes him choke on his Kool-Aid from laughing. And it's always been a wonderful time. Mom drags out the fancy plates, and the fancy glasses (that I really don't think were originally intended to serve water or Kool-Aid,) and we actually practice our manners at the table. It's actually one of the few times any of us have sat at that table and asked someone to pass something, instead of just reaching to the other end of the table and taking it.

This year was a little different. While I did enjoy my nephew-guided tour of his Grandpa's barn, stables, chicken coops, barn, tractors, chicken coops, stables, barn, trucks, and tractors(we did several laps, and in no particular order,) the Incident was always on my mind. But it wasn't until a couple weeks later that I finally found the silver lining to that horribly dark cloud.

You see, I finally realized what happened that day. An unfortunate situation arose, and the family banded together. We've always been the kind of family where we all kind of do our own thing. But on that day, it seemed that all the gears aligned. And knowing that, no matter what, when the stuff hits the fan, your family is going to be there...

That's something to be truly thankful for.

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I'm done for tonight, today, whatever....

-B-

"An escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. You should never see an 'ESCALATOR TEMPORARILY OUT OF ORDER' sign, just 'ESCALATOR TEMPORARILY STAIRS--SORRY FOR THE CONVENIENCE.'" -- Mitch Hedberg