Thanksgiving Day 2011 - As Good As It Gets! Fundamental Questions - For Thanksgiving, For Everything, tlt.gs/fqfi

I hope you don't read this until tomorrow or next week because you're enjoying Thanksgiving so much.

Light Small Candles - Be Personally Happy, Publicly Useful

I intended to post/publish this message earlier this week, but instead of finishing, I decided to catch up on sleep, prepare for this day, or spend time with my family.  I was right.  


Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but last night already topped my expectations.  Our 3 children and their significant others, including our daughter-in-law visibly pregnant with my first grandchild, were sitting together in our living room.  [Oops, I'm trying to learn not to think of it as "my grandchild," but I frequently slip.]   The evening was so satisfying, so loosely fun, and so saturated with comfortable love that I even resisted my usual urge to take pictures.  No one wanted to interrupt the flow.  Dozing was permitted, because we know in this kind of gathering, to fall asleep demonstrates that person feels at home and accepted - and probably tired.  


FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS 
As I was thinking this morning about today's Thanksgiving activities, my mind briefly slipped into the keynote I'll offer at the 10th Annual CUNY IT Conf in NYC next week.  I saw how our "Fundamental Questions" could serve both.  So, today I'll see if we can take a few minutes together to think and talk about these powerful questions, especially after this tough year:
As we think about our future together,
1. What do you most want to gain? [Regain?]
2. What do you most cherish and want not to lose?


AAHESGIT & OTHER THANKSGIVINGS
A couple days ago, Chuck Ansorge, who has become a real friend through our work together and long-time connections, sent me an email reminder of my Thanksgiving message from 1996 when I was running the unpronouncable but valuable AAHESGIT listserv.  Because of Chuck's prompt, I include that message below along with a few other excerpts and links from my past Thanksgiving messages.  


PREVIOUS THANKSGIVING MESSAGES, MATERIALS - see  tlt.gs/TnxgvngCmunty

THANKSGIVING 1996

I'm thankful for love and humor and hugs.  I'm thankful for

good ideas and good people with whom to share them.  I'm

thankful for my family, friends, and a "career" that keeps

bringing me together with so many people who are trying to

make the world a little better, especially with those

dedicated to teaching and learning.  I'm thankful for all the

opportunities for me to teach and learn. 

More Thanksgiving excerpts, links...

I'm also thankful for the emerging combination of computers

and telecommunications that has permitted me to discover

AAHESGIT -- a way of communicating with so many of you that

is so satisfying to me that sometimes I almost feel guilty. 

I'm thankful that I have the time, resources, and opportunity

to do it at all, but I'm frustrated that I can't respond as

quickly and fully as each of you and each incoming message

deserves.  [Again, a special apology for not being able to

process my EMail very effectively during the past few weeks

when I've been recovering from computer problems.]  I'm

thankful for your thoughtful contributions to AAHESGIT and

for the pleasure in meeting some of you when I visit

different campuses and events.

Steve Gilbert ==============================================

================== Delighted to be home with my family. ====

 Thanksgiving 2007 Brief Hybrid Workshop:  "Personally Happy and Publicly Useful,"  Based on Ursula Franklin's Obstinate Optimism and Search for Balance.  Franklin is a "Feminist, educator, Quaker, and physicist" - and Canadian pacifist.  The purpose of this Brief Hybrid Workshop: Express thanks, recognize Ursula Franklin's wisdom, and encourage others to engage in acts of "Compassionate Pioneering."  

• The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map 
• YouTube video of Steve Gilbert reading an excerpt and suggesting a connection between Franklin's writings about "personally happy and publicly useful" and Compassionate Pioneering.
• The Real World of Technology (CBC Massey Lectures series) Revised Edition

IMAGE

Photo of " Ursula Franklin at the 2006 launch of 'The Ursula Franklin Reader' at Massey College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada," 13 November 2006 18:59 (20 April 2010 (original upload date)), "Crop of :File:Ursula Franklin at book launch.jpg," Author Martin Franklin. Original uploader was Moxy at en.wikipedia

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Ursula_Franklin_at_book_launch_crop.jpg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AUrsula_Franklin_at_book_launch_crop.jpg

Permission Moxy at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-3.0 (<span><a class="smarterwiki-linkify" href="http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0">www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0</a></span>)], from Wikimedia Commons

CC-BY-3.0. The permission for use of this work has been verified and archived in the Wikimedia OTRS system.


Photo:  "Light manifestation to raise awareness for Breast Cancer" from Johan Larsson
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2083/1859201449_6a9cd5e9e3.jpg
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/johanl/1859201449/
Creative Commons License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en