"Thank you for being nice."

I've said it before - I love a good holiday built around a meal.  And let's face it, Thanksgiving exists for selling cans of pumpkin, kicking off the Christmas shopping season, and football (go Niners!).  We are lucky that the true meaning of the holiday is built into its name otherwise we would have forgotten the roots of Thanksgiving long ago.

I try to be thankful every day for what I have because I the last couple of years have shown me that it can be taken away in the blink of an eye.  But at times I also get wrapped up in what I have lost, what I have to live with, and the things I want and do not have.  I'm human after all, and I'm sure that you, my dear readers, have no doubt exhibited those same all too human qualities as well.  My words of wisdom on that is as follows:  STOP IT!!

I was out today, on this day before Thanksgiving, picking up our lovely pre-cooked Thanksgiving dinner for two at Whole Foods.  (No, I am not cooking tomorrow, and no, I am not my mother.)  There was traffic everywhere and drivers were propelling their vehicles at breakneck speeds to get all of their last minute errands done.  I don't think a pound of potatoes and the perfect pecan pie is worth getting into a wreck over, but whatever.  I slowly and safely navigated my way to the store with the sole goal of getting in and out with my dinner in one piece.  The parking lot was a zoo, and inside the store was a madhouse with the vehicle drivers now careening around the store with carts while still talking on their cell phones.  A nice, but slightly haggard, man in the deli told me where the table was to pick up my dinner and off I toddled carefully avoiding the mass of food buying humanity in my way. 

At the time I arrived at the pick-up table it was un-manned.  I kind of wondered if anyone was working the table, but there was a laptop there and it was obvious that someone had been there recently.  So I hunkered down for the long haul.  Several people queued up behind me anxiously looking around and making comments to no one in particular about how they were in a hurry and posing the question "doesn't anyone work here?".  Soon a lovely woman pushing a cart containing several orders pulled up to the table and off loaded, in a most pleasant manner, her wares to several impatient members of the chaos occurring around the table.  When she was done with dispersing her load, she came up to the table, woke up the computer and looked up at me.  Before she had a chance to say anything, I said with a smile "the last name is Davis, the first name is Carol", and I waited for her to work her magic and find my order.  After she typed in my name, she looked up at me and said with a tone of earnestness, "thank you for being nice." 

She got my dinner and sent me on my way but I couldn't get her words out of my head.  Being nice is the least any of us can do to make the world a better place.  It costs no money and takes relatively little skill.  And yet there are instances where niceness is such a rare commodity that one is thanked for exhibiting it?  And why?  In this case because people want their food?  That is ridiculous.

On this, the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, take a moment to review just how lucky each and every one of you are.  Forget about what you don't have and embrace what you do have.  Be happy with your life and let that happiness spill over and effect others.  Make the world a better place by being better.  And above everything else, be nice.  It matters.