Classic kavips: because it cannot be allowed to die

Absent my usual kavips fix I have been reading the archives. So I thought--as with Peanuts--that if the Delaware blogopshere is getting no new kavips, how about some classics?

Difficult, because kavips' posts have generally been, ah, lengthy, multi-layered, and filled with links.

But I found this one, from November 29, 2008, that seems to me to summarize kavips as a writer and as an individual.

It is called Thanksgiving: Addendum

Ok, my spouse slipped in this sentence during a mundane call to work on Monday….

“I invited some friends for Thanksgiving…is that ok?”

My reply was “if its done… it’s done…”

So as we approached that time I began to worry how it would go over… Usually Thanksgiving is the one time our family pulls together in hectic-world. Now it looked like that would have to wait another year…. “If it’s done…. it’s done….”

My next surprise was “you have to pick them up… while I make dinner”…. So much for our time table… My spouse was so far behind, that without my assistance.. Gee, dinner by Monday?….. Great.

So I drove to pick them up… Perhaps this would be a good place to mention that one of that couple, suffered from severe depression… almost to the point of sort of being comatose…fading in and out of our world, would be the best way to put it.. Her spouse, since last Thanksgiving, had been diagnosed with intestinal cancer, and as soon as he became ill, his insurance, carried over since his retirement from Dupont, dropped him… The hospital forced foreclosure on his house to cover some of the medical costs… But it was probably worth it, at least according to my value system, because on this day here he was alive, and moving around…

So I brought them to our home, hoping a miracle had occurred while gone, and that the frozen turkey we had popped into the oven… was done… It wasn’t.

The china, not used since last Christmas…. still needed to be hand washed, and sterilized as well…

Dinner was great when we got it… Actually it was wonderful.. Perfect turkey.. (frozen turkey, in bag, cooked at 550 degrees for less than 2 1/2 hours… don’t ask me how the internal temp. was over 165 degrees)….

And we talked, listened, the usual sharing of stories… then sat down and watched the military channel on television… He was glad, since they had lost cable with their recent move… Even highly appreciative of a cup of coffee he was, because during the move… their coffee maker had cracked and without funds, there was no way to get one… it was his first cup of coffee he had in months…

So when she stood up and said it was time to go… we got everything together and went… I took some leftover food to their apartment and placed it into their almost empty refrigerator….

I bit my tongue because I know pride is important to people, and thanked them for giving us their company during the afternoon…

As I drove back in the dark, I thought of all my other Thanksgivings,… they seemed selfish in comparison… I imagined spending that day in a darkened apartment, a day like every other, and for once, I indulged myself that I may have made a difference… a small one perhaps…

So it was this morning, the day after, my spouse was relaying the story…”I was just having a normal conversation, and accidentally said ‘why don’t you come here for Thanksgiving’ before I even knew I had said it”… He said “We’d love too”. Then his wife said she didn’t think so… Then he came on again and said, “She needs to get out, we’ll do it…”

I guess in the large scheme of things… I really do have something wonderful to be thankful for.

kavips: I know you are still out there and surfing the Delaware blogosphere [how I know that is a lesson for the student, but most blog owners will figure out how they could find out in seconds].

I don't care who you are: you happen to be that rare case of someone whose significance is actually contained within the quality of their expressed ideas.

I'm not ready to let you leave the building.