Giving thanks

Like most folks, I have a lot to be thankful for.

• Good health. When you reach a certain age, this is always first on the list. I've been phenomenally lucky with good health, especially given the great abuse I gave my body as a young and middle-aged man. If I die today, I've lived longer than my recklessness warranted.
• My parents. It all begins here. I had great parents but they died too young, mom at 62 and dad at 74. Curiously neither suffered but dropped dead on the spot. I mean, one moment everything is normal, the next they fall over dead. Each of them. Uncanny. Dad's been dead almost 20 years now, so I've been without them a long time. Miss them much. The best thing about my parents was their unconditional love and support, especially when I did things they didn't understand. Like leaving Cal Tech with a B average. Mom was very active with the Tech moms, and I ruined the highlight of her social life. Like getting a vasectomy early on and removing the chance they'd become grandparents, which they dearly wanted to be.
• Great friends. Although I outlived them, Dick and Ger were closer to me than my brother is. They were my soul brothers. It hasn't been the same since they've been gone. I also have good women friends, all of them ex's in one way or another, who are still alive and close.
• Harriet. We never would have been close if we'd met younger, we're that different, but we met late in life and have complimented the other in good ways. I don't want to outlive her and don't expect to.
• My writing. Though few in the world at large agree, I'm quite proud of my literary archive and I worked hard to get as good in my craft as I am. I'm thankful for the circumstances to be able to do this. I also paid a price for it in a number of ways but that comes with the territory, I think. I've never wished not to be a writer. However, I have told students not to become writers, knowing that if they really have what it takes, they'll ignore my advice. I'm giving them their first test.

I could list other things but these are the major things to be thankful for on this holiday when giving thanks is part of the national ritual.