A True Thanksgiving Story

Last year my wife and I decided to drive down to Southern California for Thanksgiving. What made this particular trip so interesting is that we brought along our German Shepherd, our cat, and my wife was 8 months pregnant…all in a Honda Civic. Knowing we would be tight on space I went ahead and purchased a vinyl rooftop carrier.

On our trip home, somewhere a little north of Sacramento, at about 10 p.m., on a lonely stretch of highway, I heard what can only be described as four “whoosh” sounds. I watched as one by one the latches of the rooftop carrier were torn from our doors. I looked in my rearview mirror to see our carrier tumbling behind us, followed by a tailgating semi running over our belongings. I quickly pulled to the side of the highway in a panic. I jumped from the car and stood on the side of the road, standing in shock as car after car, truck after truck, ran over and completely obliterated our stuff.

Clothes were flying through the wind, duffle bags were burst to shreds, cologne bottles were broken into a million pieces, but what stood out was the sound of breaking glass. At first I thought that was the sound of our things hitting people’s headlights or windshields, but I soon realized that was the sound of my laptop computer being crushed into bits. I spent the next thirty minutes running out between traffic trying to grab as much as I could. My mom had given me a portfolio of some artwork I had done in college that was, along with everything else, in shreds. However, one particular drawing I had done of me and my wife lay spotless on the ground.

As I picked up the portrait I had done of my wife and me, I quickly thought to myself, “What am I so upset about? No one was hurt, there were no accidents, and all of these things can be replaced.” And the simple truth was that they were all just “things”, belongings that could have just as easily been taken from us as they were acquired.

We were fortunate that our insurance ended up covering everything, but this Thanksgiving I encourage you to reflect on all of the things in your life you are thankful for. Not the “things”, but the relationships, family, and health. I hope for a wonderful holiday for you and your family. Happy Thanksgiving!