24 November 2011
There are so many things to be thankful for today.
Audrey’s special blend of beauty, quality and charm.
The sanctuary of sleep.
People who give themselves in performance.
The grace and mystery of life.
Toes.
Classic automobile design and license plates from Portugal.
The flavor and variety all over the world.
The whimsical, fey beauty of some women.
Ideograms and how they give us complete meaning in one character.
A good five cent cigar.
Thankful for the beauty that is in abstract design.
So lucky to be alive and to be here.
All the fire that is in life.
And the ability to quench that fire when need be.
Thank you for rhythm and time throughout the universe.
For the birds of the air with their style in flight.
The natural patterns that are everywhere.
When I first lived in France, the franc was worth about twenty cents. That was something to be thankful for. Five to the dollar about 1962.
The woody sound of the Gibson jazz guitars.
Las cubanas, hay algo mas que decir?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who said and wrote such wonderful things.
I was thankful in the eighth grade when a priest gave me a beautiful harmonica because I was “the most musical boy in the room.” Not true, actually, but I took the harmonica anyway and played Christmas songs on it for years.
Thankful for hats which I never could wear. My wife Elise Piliwale can wear any hat and make it look beautiful. If the manufacturer of that hat saw Elise in it, s/he would offer her money right away just to go around wearing that hat.
We give thanks today for designs that can be new and beautiful too.
Thank you whoever is responsible for the irrepressible Jerry Lee Lewis, his genius and the fire in his soul.
And for the machines.
Who seem to take on a life of their own.
Thanksgiving for all the hunting horns, their sounds, their whole family of overtones and overtures.
For the forefathers and foremothers who show us the way.
I am giving thanks for all the modes of beauty, all the flowers in the garden.
And, yes, for pasta in its myriad and delicious diversity.
Thank you, all you painters who have gone before and showed the way.
Especially to Rembrandt who persisted through some very rough times and reached a higher plateau toward the end of his life.
To Rossini who wrote all those singable melodies and fit them to stories glorious and giddy.
We in Big Brother and the Holding Company give thanks that we were allowed to go to Russia in 1995 and see that the Russians were still as alive and spirit seeking as they were in novels of Dostoyefsky and Tolstoy.
Very thankful for dizzy distractions in the middle of momentous undertakings.
Today we will be thankful too for the aimless silliness of life.
And we will remember the serious, solemn Schopenhauers among us too.
Freedom, too, is so easy to overlook, and, every moment that we are free is a glorious moment, and we should be mindful of that always.
Thank you whoever invented the shoe, thank you very much. How clever.
We are grateful for order and well proportioned elegance everywhere.
Manmade and inherited.
For that deep toned sound of the Swiss bell, full and truly musical.
For the whistle of the teakettle on the hob.
Oh, and by all means, let’s not forget Tina Fey.
Mostly I am thankful for Elise Piliwale, her warmth, her intelligence, her generosity and kindness every day.
Thank you always for being there.
Sam Andrew.
Big Brother and the Holding Company
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