Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Thanksgiving

This past Thanksgiving Day, my mom and brother went down to the Dillon’s for an afternoon dinner with their family and friends. It was a very gracious invitation and dinner was great. I was delegated the responsibility to carve the turkey. Oh – I had to wake up Alex on the way as he’d been out all night digging up arrowheads. Tatiana gave the blessing.  Cathy asked that all of us make some quick commentary about what we each were thankful for. I had to think on that for a bit – it was not a simple question for me because on even the worst of days, I can still find a whole lot of daylight. Truly – every morning that I wake up, I am thankful. But certainly, as I sat there hastily thinking about what I was most thankful for, I expressed that it was my relationships with good people – here n there, abroad and around the World. I do know a bunch of extraordinary people and I do care about them all immensely.  I said what I said, it was well received, but I continued to think about it for a day or two afterward. 

Now having had the time to think – I would say that I am most thankful for having been granted the sort of character and demeanor that permits me to see both the good and beauty of things, the be able to listen and to set volatile emotions aside to make considered decisions and choices. It is this that has enabled me to find, even seek out interesting people to befriend. Generally, but not always, when I pick someone out of the crowd, we are pals for life.

As I now sit in a premium seat of my United flight to Cancun, I am forced by the circumstance of the day to continue with my thoughts. A few years ago, I was going to Hawaii with Tyler Green – a friend of mine from San Marcos. We stopped in LA for a couple of days to visit Paula and other friends. When we arrived at LAX for our Hawaiian Air flight to Maui – in the rarest of moments – the flight was cancelled due to a mechanical problem. The airline counter was a nightmare. The lines were long and everyone was just pissed off. We had at least fifteen people ahead of us in line and an entire MD11 needed to be re-routed. Oh well I said – and we stood as the line gnary moved at all. After a while, I said to Tyler to put on a happy face. He smiled. I said no – I want you to look up at the counter at every Hawaiian Airline’s employee and let them know how happy you are to be here – to let them see in your face that you are not pissed off and that you empathize with their plight. And so both of us – in truth – looked forward through the gauntlet of anger and ill will and radiated our smiley faces and good spirits and love for the moment. And it was for about ten minutes when a cute counter manager caught our eye. She walked out from behind the counter, past fifteen people in front of us and stopped standing before us. She looked over her glasses and said quietly, “where are you guys going?”  We both said “Maui”. She said, “Give me your tickets and ID’s and wait here.” I less than five minutes, she walked back from the counter with two tickets on an American flight to Maui. She quickly gave us directions of how to get across the airport and then smiled – “and ya’ll will arrive 30 minutes earlier.  Nice.

And so today – on yet another adventure – this time to Tumul and Coba in Yucatan, I was faced with another dilemma – a small economy seat. I walked up to the counter and chit chatted with the flight crew about this and that – happy as always to be alive, to be where I was, to be talking to them. I asked about what it was costing for upgrades, as it seemed the front of the plane was empty. She smiled, took a spin through the computer and said – oh wow, they’re expensive. OK I said – thanks for looking. I sat nearby and helped direct wayward folks to the counter to get their passports checked – just because they had not heard the announcement. And so after a bit, when the counter was quiet, she walked out to my seat and tapped me on the shoulder. Do you have your ticket? Sure – and we walked to the counter. She said “I’m putting you in a premium seat”. Nice! 

So now I type with my feet up on the armrest and about six feet of legroom ahead of me – my third Blood Mary by the way. The plane is shaking all over the sky but we will be arriving 25 minutes early.

I do have so much to be thankful for – and I do always see the full side of my glass. And as I boarded this plane this morning, I got the best text ever ever ever from Alex, at 6:03am no less. He did say he tried to wake up. I’m thinking he had not yet gone to bed. None the less, I am so extraordinarily fortunate.  

AD Welding and Fence Company, San Marcos, Texas

City by the Bay

Farewell oh City by the Bay,
I would that I could longer stay -
If only for another day;
But this I swear in truth I say -
I shall return somehow, some way.

I'll see again your beautiful views,
That sit each place in more than twos.
I'll take your  foods as well as brews,
I'll feel again your fog and dews;
Yes, I will be back on future cruise

But now farewell, Aufedersein
Until I'm back to "live" again.

Carl Deal 1986

At Toast to the Dullard and any other 47% that may or may not exist.

"I never yet saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many on their getting warm, becoming rude, and shooting one another. Conviction is the effect of our own dispassionate reasoning, either in solitude, or weighing within ourselves dispassionately what we hear from others standing uncommitted in argument ourselves. It was one of the rules which above all others made Doctr. Franklin the most amiable of men in society, `never to contradict any body.' If he was urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as if for information, or by suggesting doubts. When I hear another express an opinion, which is not mine, I say to myself, He has a right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it. His error does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixot to bring all men by force of argument, to one opinion? If a fact be misstated, it is probable he is gratified by a belief of it, and I have no right to deprive him of the gratification. If he wants information he will ask it, and then I will give it in measured terms; but if he still believes his own story, and shows a desire to dispute the fact with me, I hear him and say nothing. Thomas Jefferson 1808

AD / Erik Pettit - Lost Letters

Carl,

“Saying “thanks” and thinking, too, How very nice it was of you.

Thanks you for being the bee’s knees. Thank you for being a brother and a teacher, and most of all for sharing your lessons and experiences with us, and telling us how important that is in life. We’re sooo glad you’re a member of our tribe. I personally have always disagreed with that saying…you know the one…the one about how you can choose your friends but not your family? That’s just ridiculous. We have the most amazing hand picked family in the World. I LOVE us. Thank you for throwing the most awesome graduation party ever. It just wouldn’t have gotten done at all without you. And I really can’t even convey with words how much it meant to us. Two awesome wonderful boys who are all too used to getting the short end of the stick, got to have an exceptional and special day. And there are so many other days that you’ve helped make special. Thank you for being an adult who cares…thank you for making me feel less alone. Love you brother. P.S. I hope you like that cheese-tastic rhyme.

AD

Erik William Grayson Pettit

Burleson Street Historical District, San Marcos, Texas

The Burleson Street Historical District sits on high ground in this town - in many ways. With a comprehensive view of the coastal plain and nearly all of the city, so too do we look down on Belvin Street - where the groomed lawns are and the domestic help. Our street jingle - someday a billboard ad - "Burleson Street Historical District - Where We Look Down on Belvin."

No less than two weeks ago, I was having a cordial conversation with one of my pals - a notable and influential local leader who lives nearby with his wife. "I don't know how you do it Carl", he said, speaking to the endless drama that seems to permeate the hilltop and the landscape below, pouring like sticky syrup from our small section of street. True true, it is amazing. It caused me to think for a good long while about what has indeed been a gushing cornucopia of pungent aromatic squabble, distasteful distress, beguiled bickering, trench and foxhole digging and mud ball fight, a virtual, hot and steamy Yellowstone National Park rotten egg stink hole - a full on menagerie of things that unsettle the waters in idle times.

I revisited that conversation last night with my neighbor - laughing a bit - "this is a small town, she says, people just cant mind their own business here, especially when their drunk." Another "true true." "Imagine" she says speaking of Belvin Street. "All those characters down there, they are probably just like us, all mixed up in each other's stuff. "

Interesting I thought, this is probably true as well. A lot of neighborhoods live very segregated lives where people don't even know the folks next door, much less down the block. Up here, we all know each other along with the knowing of the best and worst of each of us. And despite what seems at times to be tensions that teeter on the cusp of all out war, the arming of missiles with ever more powerful warheads intent upon mutual assured destruction, we still watch out for each other. When the shit hits the fan, and something needs to get done for the common good - we put aside our differences and do our best. It is no Miracle on 34th Street - but it does "Take a Village" to live in and raise a neighborhood with its many unique and sometimes vulnerable parts - a neighborhood that makes life worth living and fighting for. And in the end, both young and old, we will have been recognized for making that happen. We will be recognized for making the best of our various strengths and sheltering our weaknesses, assets and liabilities, good and evil, to find times - here and there - where we are all thankful for each other. We might duke it out on the street corner now and then, but we will help each other set the broken noses afterward, clean up the bloody mess, and move on to the next crisis, Birthday Party, Halloween, New Year's Eve or Venison Cookout - without missing a step.