thanksgiving.

it's thanksgiving in the US. and yesterday night as i was studying, i thought about what a coincidence it was. that i was feeling immensely thankful to many things and it happened to be the season of thanksgiving. not in my country but does that matter in our globalized world?

i think the funniest thing about thanksgiving, which is something i learnt from the west wing, where in season 2's thanksgiving episode, 2 turkeys were set loose in CJ's the press secretary's office and it turns out she had to choose the more photogenic and people-friendly of the 2 to receive a presidential pardon. now when i watch that episode again i can't help but laugh nonstop 'cos the entire idea is just quite silly. and CJ was so funny, she went all soft-hearted on the other turkey who didn't receive the pardon 'cos it means he ends up on someone's dinner table at thanksgiving. and insisted the president pardon him too. (:

well with a little googling i learnt that the president does pardon a turkey at every thanksgiving. and the backup turkey and the pardoned one gets sent off to disneyland and live a long long life. apparently its a tradition in the white house. you can go see hilarious pictures of bush pardoning his turkey.

p.s. in the west wing, the president did save the life of the other turkey, by writing a cheque for it for the original owners. whom i'm sure framed the cheque anyway.

so anyway, i was saying that thanksgiving came at a special moment in my own life. and not just individually, but as i looked onto the world torn asunder by war, genocide, civil unrest, political unrest, strikes in france and US, climate change/global warming, nuclear power, cyclones, ongoing terrorism, children with no access to healthcare, the growing divide between the rich and the poor. where people are split down 10 different sides and perspectives on urgent issues, where no compromise and consensus can be reached, i keep wondering if the end times as written in Revelations is drawing near.

so where's the things to be thankful for? sometimes it's hard to think about problems of the world and still see things we can be thankful for. but i've seemed to learn an important lesson through these years of growing up.

patience. and waiting on the Lord. and sometimes, we can be thankful for those little steps that have been taken to solve the bigger problem. i'm glad that now when i refuse a shopping bag for my packet of sweets, the auntie smiles at me, says thank you and says to me, saving the environment right?

well, there's also the matter of looking around you and being thankful for what you have. i've had 4 terror papers in the past 1 week and so many people have made this one week more bearable. and most importantly, i wouldn't have made it, really, without the Lord. it's hard to admit your weaknesses. but this kind of pressure, well self-inflicted pressure really, really leaves you short of breath and on the verge of freaking out. having the Lord just a prayer away makes everything smoother. like sandpapered wood.

yeah, we can't exactly travel through time and space. saying "save the cheerleader, save the world" and history can be rewritten, and perhaps, the mistakes made would be rectified and the world would have a lighter burden to bear on its already broken back. as mr. kaito nakamura says, "we have been given the power of gods, but that doesn't mean we can play God." wise words from the father indeed.

p.s. i really don't know how my post ended up with heroes lines. but the latest episode was just so wonderfully written and shot and executed. i was amazed at its beauty really.

anyway i could wax lyrical about more thanksgiving ramblings, but i just have a blog to recommend on the Huffington Post. a website i discovered that is so info-laden and thought-provoking. the blog by jon robin baitz, creator and exec producer of brothers and sisters writes about issues close to his heart. and i love his take on thanksgiving. click.

oh yes. and some new pictures of my vegas trip (a continuation from a long time ago) can be found here. click.

happy thanksgiving/holidays/studying. (:

edit: i just read this hilarious but really quite true blog entry on the huffington post by bill maher, a political/social/religious satirist (is there such a word) and commentator and comedian. this sets a great contrast to the blog post by jon robin baitz. click.