This was a quiet Thanksgiving for our family and most families I know. No one got on a plane to join far-flung relatives, no one tossed a football after a big meal (but no one does in my family), and if there were football games to watch, we didn’t turn them on.
This Thanksgiving was filled with phone calls, face times, and very distanced family. Everyone is just a phone call away. My mom is foggy on why she had to eat turkey by herself, but she may not remember that Thanksgiving came and went in the first place. In a way, perhaps that’s just luck.
I count my blessings. (By the way, I never used to talk this way. I think it’s the excruciating pain of everything that has happened in the last year that makes me sound like an amateur Sunday School teacher.)
But now, after a long, long siege, it feels safe to exhale. Donald Trump hadn’t conceded as of this taping, but he had authorized at last the transition to the next administration. Joe Biden will be our next president, Kamala Harris will be our next vice president, and President-elect Biden has already named an impressive slate of cabinet secretaries and security advisors, who are experienced and qualified, and who respect the branches of government. These are not payoffs to deep-pocketed donors. These are women and men who will make us proud and also relaxed.
And critically, three pharmaceutical companies have independently created and tested anti COVID-19 vaccines that have at least a 90% effectiveness rating. Dr. Fauci thinks we will be able to get inoculated before the summer. I have never wanted a shot so badly.
I know many of you have lost loved ones to this pernicious virus. I know many of you have recovered from it yourselves. So even though we are not physically close, and even though we’ll probably be wearing face masks for many more months, it feels like we may have dodged several more bullets. And when you think about it, staying home and wearing a mask isn’t that hard to do. We’re getting close to the finish line.
NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. To LISTEN, please SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. To WATCH it on YOUTUBE - Click HERE. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO! It helps get my podcast noticed.
I can’t help but wanting to share my five things that make my life better with you.
1. Rachel Maddow. She has narrated this multi-year crisis in clear English and became a trusted resource for me. So many people have told me about their crushes on Rachel Maddow’s brain, her style, her essential kindness. I have been a fan of hers since she worked at Air America Radio, where she co-hosted a daily show with Chuck D and Lizz Winstead. But my admiration just exploded last week when she told the world about her partner’s experience with COVID, and in surprisingly stark and candid terms told us how much she loves Susan, and how she would have done anything in the world to have gotten the virus in order to protect the woman she adores. From someone who seems abashed when guests thank her for the work she does, she was emotional and open and so human. An inspiration. I’m glad her relationship gives her so much happiness.
2. There is a cadre of good people in the Senate who get less attention than their colleagues who ask for more attention or elicit it for one thing or another. I’m thinking of Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Dick Durbin of Illinois. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Chris Coons of Delaware. People who give me a sense of calm when I see them. (I feel the same way about Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, but they’ve been in so many headlines this year.)
3. Peking Duck. Not the traditional expression of the pilgrims celebrating their first festival in the New World, but as good as any this year. My fella and I have had it a few times since socially distancing as a celebratory meal. It felt right for now.
4. Watching live conversations on my computer: They may be webinars, they may be zooms, I don’t actually know what they are. I watched Martin Amis have a good talk with Steve Martin. I watched Salman Rushdie talk with Paul Auster and Natasha Trethewey . I understand one can see actors reading from beloved books too. Whatever you see, it feels like connection, which is what we need.
5. Zingerman’s pimento cheese spread. My friend the journalist and foodie Micheline Maynard extolls Zingerman’s, the famous Michigan food store – dare I call it “the Zabar’s of the Midwest”? all the time. Well somehow I was able to buy a tiny plastic tub of this cheese product through Farm to People.com, and I love it so much! It’s like a little beacon in my fridge – maybe I’ll go over there now and take a tiny bite.
The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC.
My team is Shpresa Oruci, Michael Porte, Sam Haft and Boco Haft.