Giving thanks starts with saying `thanks'

Thanksgiving is Thursday and I have heard it called the “gateway” to the holiday season. And as such, it is my favorite of the holidays. It's new, it's fresh and it's first.

This time of year, we all hear the traditional stories about the Pilgrims and the Indigenous people who they encountered. The story goes that the first Native the Pilgrims encountered was a man named Samoset, who asked them, in English, for beer. The irony is that the Pilgrims didn't have any beer, they had run out, which is actually one of the reasons why they were put ashore by the crew of the Mayflower (they didn't own the ship, they had contracted it). That Mayflower crew didn't want to share their rationed beer with them, so instead of proceeding on to their original destination, the Colony of Virginia, the colonists were put ashore at Plymouth Rock. Samoset was offered instead “hard water” (liquor), which he appeared to be all right with.

In this space, I often relay the stories of the difficult, the delusional and the downright mean. But truth be told, those people only represent a small part of the overall people I encounter.

The original Thanksgiving began with someone asking for beer. I think of that every time Thanksgiving rolls around, because some of the moments that I am most thankful for have started with someone asking for a drink.

In this space, I often relay the stories of the difficult, the delusional and the downright mean. But truth be told, those people only represent a small part of the overall people I encounter. The fact is that every day I encounter some of the best people who you will ever meet. I have been behind the stick for over three decades now, but it hasn't always been the same stick, nor has it been the same schtick.

But the relationships that I have built have followed me from one place to another. I treat them all as chapters in the book of my life. There are people I know from the Rock Club that I ran, there are people I know from the Disco, the Mexican restaurant, the American restaurant, the Pan Asian restaurant, the other Rock Club, the other Disco and the other American restaurant.

Charles Darwin once said, “A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.” And I believe that wholeheartedly. And it is those friendships that have kept me doing what I do, year after year, decade after decade. The drinks, they come and go, but it's the people who send me into work every day because every day might be the