{"id":8648,"date":"2024-11-28T03:37:15","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T03:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=8648"},"modified":"2025-11-27T18:03:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T18:03:22","slug":"true-gratitude-wisdom-in-the-comics-thanksgiving-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/true-gratitude-wisdom-in-the-comics-thanksgiving-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"True Gratitude: Wisdom in the Comics \u2014 Thanksgiving 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/johnhartstudios.com\/wizardofid\/2024\/11\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20241028ff\/20241124-Gratitide-prisoner-wiz24_1124sc-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"JohnHartStudios.com's Wizard of Id, by the Parker and Hart families; November 24, 2024: 'I'm grateful for people like him, who understand true gratitude.' See https:\/\/johnhartstudios.com\/meet-the-artists\/wizard-of-id-team\/\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Understanding gratitude: a good thought, from the Wizard of Id. (November 24, 2024)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/thanksgiving-2023-still-being-thankful\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20201109ff\/20201126-MacysParade-16-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Go_Bowling balloonicles at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: a 12-foot bowling ball, 16-foot pins and Brobdingnagian bowling shoes. (November 9, 2020) via Verizon, used w\/o permission. see https:\/\/macysthanksgiving.fandom.com\/wiki\/Go_Bowling\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Wizard of Id&#8217;s Spook and Turnkey made a good point last Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gratitude is an option, even when life&#8217;s bowl of cherries seems filled with pits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes I don&#8217;t <strong>feel <\/strong>particularly grateful, that&#8217;s putting it mildly; but I can always <strong>be<\/strong> grateful, if I remember that just being alive is a gift from God: and that everything else is gravy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remembering to remember \u2014 that&#8217;s tricky. For me, at any rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Decades of undiagnosed depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and\/or autism spectrum disorder, a hip that didn&#8217;t grow right, and assorted other imperfections \u2014 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a name=\"ivegot\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/reading-writing-preferences-priorities-and-acts-18\/#attitudes\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" align=\"right\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20130220ff\/20150704-800px-Durer_Melancholia_I-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Albrecht D\u00fcrer's 'Melancholia I,.' (1514) via Wikimedia Commons, used w\/o permission.\"><\/a>I&#8217;ve got any number of excuses for fashionable melancholy. I see it&#8217;s been three years since I talked about that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/reading-writing-preferences-priorities-and-acts-18\/\">Reading, Writing, Preferences, Priorities, and Acts 1:8<\/a>&#8221; (November 20, 2021)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/reading-writing-preferences-priorities-and-acts-18\/#attitudes\">Attitudes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Although I&#8217;m pretty good at seeing dark linings in every sliver cloud, I don&#8217;t see the point in peddling doom and gloom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if that&#8217;s become a traditional indicator of intelligence and insight:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;&#8230;the student of eighteenth-century melancholy is faced with a problem: for much of the period, melancholy was frothily fashionable, a condition that often seemed less of an illness and more of a blessing for the budding poet, wilting lady wishing to show off her latest nightdress, or anyone who desired to seem in the slightest bit sensitive or clever&#8230;.&#8221;<br>(&#8220;Melancholy Experience in Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/chapter\/10.1057%2F9780230306592_2\">Fashionable Melancholy<\/a>, Abstract, Clark Lawlor (2011) via Springer Link)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Fashionable melancholy&#8217;s flip side, pretending that everything&#8217;s fine, doesn&#8217;t make sense, either: and that&#8217;s another topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a name=\"illexpress\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/thanksgiving-and-two-turkeys-a-continuing-tale\/#2021TwoTurkeys\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" align=\"right\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20210922ff\/20211124-ThanksGiving2021-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Brian H. Gill's 'Thanks But I'm Stuf-.' (2021)\"><\/a>So I&#8217;ll express my hope that you have a good Thanksgiving Day \u2014 or November 28th, if my country&#8217;s turkey fest isn&#8217;t part of your week \u2014 see if I can find coverage of Macy&#8217;s Thanksgiving Day parade online, and wrap this up with the usual vaguely-related list of posts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/cancer-concerns-prayer-and-my-family\/\">Cancer Concerns, Prayer, and My Family<\/a>&#8220;<br>(April 17, 2024)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/saints-depression-assumptions-and-me\/\">Saints, Depression, Assumptions, and Me<\/a>&#8220;<br>(March 23, 2024)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/thanksgiving-2023-still-being-thankful\/\">Thanksgiving 2023: Still Being Thankful<\/a>&#8220;<br>(November 23, 2023)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/thanksgiving-and-two-turkeys-a-continuing-tale\/\">Thanksgiving and Two Turkeys: A Continuing Tale<\/a>&#8220;<br>(November 24, 2022)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/thanksgiving-weekend-2021-puritans-pandemic-and-me\/\">Thanksgiving Weekend 2021: Puritans, Pandemic and Me<\/a>&#8220;<br>(November 27, 2021)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wizard of Id&#8217;s Spook and Turnkey made a good point last Sunday. Gratitude is an option, even when life&#8217;s bowl of cherries seems filled with pits. Sometimes I don&#8217;t feel particularly grateful, that&#8217;s putting it mildly; but I can always &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/true-gratitude-wisdom-in-the-comics-thanksgiving-2024\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Being grateful is a decision: one that makes sense, even when it is not easy.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"True Gratitude: Wisdom in the Comics \u2014 Thanksgiving 2024","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[215,192],"tags":[90,142],"class_list":["post-8648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-catholic","category-journal","tag-holidays","tag-thanksgiving-day"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-2fu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8648"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9713,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8648\/revisions\/9713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}