On the eve

Much like last week, I am tonight on the cusp of what may be my favorite holiday - Thanksgiving. It is, simply put, one of the few holidays left unmolested by commercialism (in fact, the only way that businesses seem to be able to profit off of it is by making up a faux-holiday that happens to take place near Thanksgiving).

Every Thanksgiving Eve, my parents host a party for our friends, and this year's, thus far, is going very well. In the living room, a theological discussion is burning, the topic of which I have yet to gather; in the dining room, groups of small children huddle around platters of freshly-baked food, the creation of which decimated my home's butter supply; in the basement, my fellow teenagers talk, play pool, and spontaneously burst into song; in the den, mothers and fathers young and old huddle around an infant.

For this world in which I am so improbably a resident, for this island of warmth and light in a vast ocean of troubles, for the comfort and pliant strength of friendship - for these, I am truly thankful.