For what are you thankful?

[Santiago]

I'm thankful for my family, health and home of course, and I'm thankful for the fellowship offered by this and other communities I touch. I'm thankful for the role music plays in my life and I'm thankful for the one mando I own. In fact, I played it last week an an interfaith Thanksgiving service where I live, and that also makes me thankful for living in both mentioned communities.

[Bruce Evans]

For whom am I thankful.

Karol.

Everything else is kinda nice, too.

[Santiago]

I don't think I meant to say whom. Health is not a person, nor is my mando.

[Andrew Faltesek]

I'm thankful to my wonderful wife, who helped purchase my first mandolin on the occasion of my 50th birthday, and who puts up with all my practice. For the gift in my family for musical and artistic ability; especially acoustic music. For my children, and for my good friends. I'm thankful for having a steady job in an environmental field; and for freedom; a bit more time to enjoy the outdoors and travel; and the joy of seeing hard work pay off. Thanks to Scott for super job hosting this cafe.

[JEStanek]

What am I thankful for? #Aside from the big things like my family, friends and health... Little things like the Café, folks like Jack Spira and Brian Dean, people who can only "live" by making music and the inspiration they give me to try... I'm thankful for the many blessings I've gotten, even the ones that didn't seem like blessings when I did get them. #Finally, frivolity. #I'm thankful for frivolity in a world that can be hard and ugly. #I'm thankful for Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey.

Jamie

[John Flynn]

Big picture: Faith, family, employment, health, this great country.

Music: Mandolins, old-time music, the great OT scene and associated players here in the Missouri/Illinois area, The St. Louis Folk School and of course, The Mandolin Cafe'.

[Chris Biorkman]

Can everyone please stop correcting grammar and spelling mistakes? That would make me pretty happy.

[Wesley]

I'm fond of saying that I'll never have everything I want - but I already have everything I need.

Health, family, friends, a decent job and a roof over my head. Anything above that would just be greedy. But if someone found a cure for autism next year - that would be icing on the cake.

[mandolooter]

Its a huge list so I'll just say Im very thankful. I also wish every single person oversea's in the military could be home with their family for this Thanksgiving. Plenty of thanks to them!!!

[Michael H Geimer]

Today, I am thankful no one died, and I am thankful I waited to cross the street (or I would have been standing under that tree), and I am thankful we are leaving this neighborhood soon.

This was last night, right outside my house. Sideshow stupidity. Cops found guns and drugs in the car. The sober party escaped without injuries.

Please Drive Safe this weekend, and keep your eyes out for the crazies (the "innocent" party did not come to a complete stop at the sign ... nevertheless, they didn't deserve what came at them).

[Santiago]

"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" -- Joni Mitchell.

[allenhopkins]

Thankful that family is healthy, far-flung sons are productive, happy, succesful -- that I gained a wonderful daughter-in-law this July -- that my Mom's passing the same month was peaceful and pain-free -- that family, friends and music provide a nourishing and stimulating environment for this ol' retiree -- and that we still have freedom, the opportunity to contribute, participate, influence and (I hope) improve our land and our world.

[Rick Smith]

The Holy Trinity, family, country(and all that defend it), friends....much too much to list

[fatt-dad]

Yeah all that family stuff and the health and all. . . . I'm really thankful that there are actually people that find a place in their heart to tolerate me. It's tough being hard headed and it's wonderful to know that tolerant folks live in the world with me. I'd like to learn a few things from them.

f-d

[saintandsinnerguy]

I am most thankful for my wife and 2 beautiful daughters. I am truly a blessed man. I am also thankful for living in a free society that allows me the room to speak without fear. I served in the military for 16 years.......I am thankful for any American who puts on the uniform and guard the wall. God bless them!

[Alex Fields]

My girlfriend, certain family members (though not all of them haha), the various musical traditions that I participate in (and the other musicians who participate), the fortunate circumstances which allow me to play music on nice instruments, good literature, the internet, people who are reasonable and willing to engage in intelligent conversation or argument without being rude or refusing to listen, the internet, Asian food, standardized writing and music notation, apple cider, humor, people who smile.

Although actually I'm not sure about a lot of that, because I'm not sure what it means to be thankful for something when you have nobody to whom you can be thankful for it. I can be thankful to a friend for a good joke or to a chef for good food, but I don't know to whom or what I am thankful for the beauty of nature for example. Although if being thankful just means feeling an emotion of the sort you feel when you are thankful to someone, or even simpler, just being glad for something being as it is, I am thankful for those types of things too.

...maybe I should've stopped at "people who smile."

[Alex Fields]

It's tough being hard headed and it's wonderful to know that tolerant folks live in the world with me. I'd like to learn a few things from them.

I second that. Except maybe the part about it being tough, unless you mean tough for other people. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[mandopete]

Man, I'm thankful for Avatars!

(just trying to lighten things up a bit)

[Bill Snyder]

I don't think I meant to say whom. Health is not a person, nor is my mando.
I took his using whom not as a correction of your post but just a note that what he is thankful for is a person.

[Santiago]

Hey, maybe I'm too sensitive, but it came across that way to me. People type fast and it is sometimes hard to catch their drifts.

[Alex Fields]

I think Bill's right, you didn't use the word who so it seems odd from him to pull a whom correction...and it also seems really odd to not be able to recognize the meaning of the sentence "what are you thinkful for?" So probably he wasn't trying to correct you. But that's a reasonable interpretation too, his post is ambiguous.

[croonerexpress]

money and my mirrors.

[Alex Fields]

Hahaha.

[Michael H Geimer]

OK ... my is going a lot better than my still-freaked out morning.

I just had lunch with some in-law relatives who live in Japan. My brother recently moved there with his family, just as I'm about to move in the opposite direction.

I'll miss my brother, his wife and my niece and nephew, too. But I'm very thankful that we each have the opportunity to pursue our dreams, and live where we want in this big round world.

I'm thankful for Skype, too and how it helps makes that big world a little smaller!

[Jim Roberts]

Thankful for family, health, friends and music. #Thankful for my favorite aunt who our family lost this week in her eighty-ninth year of a wonderful life. #Thankful for the Hibernation Ale I am consuming while playing O'Carolan tunes tonight on my Old Wave mandola. #Thankful for Scott teaching O'Carolan mandolin classes at the Americana Music Academy. #Thankful for the dream of an administration that someday will bring us peace and a renewable energy policy that will wean us off of fossil fuels.

[fatt-dad]

o.k. and I'm also thankful for the love of acoustic music and some slight ability to play it. I've recently begun my journey to country blues on the guitar, but continue to play my mandolin.

f-d

[Jim Broyles]

Can everyone please stop correcting grammar and spelling mistakes? That would make me pretty happy.
Nobody corrected any in this thread. The guy was just trying to say that he is thankful for a "whom" rather than a "what." People need to actually read others posts before they get all offended and stuff.

[Joel Spaulding]

My beautiful six-week-old daughter; Gabrielle(our first child), my wife, my family
and a Google search for "Mandolin Intonation" that eventually led me to the Cafe http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Happy Thanksgiving to All!

[Rick Smith]

Congrats on the little one drmole. Are you getting her a mando for her first Christmas?

[melodic yeti]

I'm most thankful for loving parents who supported my musical interests their entire lives.

Happy Thanksgiving all you mandolin friends!!

[Joel Spaulding]

Thanks, Rick!
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif - For her first Christmas she will likely be reciving a pink "Hello Kitty" Strat (Mom says it goes better with the nursery decor)- I have already given her my Vietnamese Ebay
special that looks better than it plays. I currently have my first "real" Mando on order with Geoff B of iiimandolin.com - expected in March - so her first "real" mando wil be coming next Christmas - Mom has accepted that MAS has a genetic component http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[JEStanek]

Joel, Those iii mandolins look pretty cool. I particularly like the bow tie soundholes.
Congrats on the family and you gotta post pictures when your mandolin is finished.

Jamie

[Joel Spaulding]

Thanks Jamie,
Geoff Burghardt from iii mandolin ( he IS iii Mandolin)is nothing but a pleasure to work with so I will put in my thanks for meeting him here at the Cafe. will post some "mandolins in progress" photos in the next few days

[Bob McRee]

I am living in China with my 10 month old baby girl. As I travel and meet people here, I am reminded how similar and, yet, how different we are. I am thankful to be learning the real value of friendship. There are times I am starved for English conversation. I have a few friends back home in Texas who help me through the hard times here. Thanks, John B. and Bob P. I am thankful that I have had the chance to start making mandolins here and to be doing something I have wanted to do for several years. Life is sometimes hard and very unfair, but I am thankful for everyone who never gives up and keeps going. We do not know what will happen tomorrow...Enjoy each day. As I write this, Thanksgiving day is all but over here but just starting there. I hope all of you have a great day with family, friends and loved ones.

[Joe F]

Along with the usual suspects (family, friends, neighbors, living in a free nation, those who put their lives on the line to defend it, and countless others), I'm especially thankful for the large and active old-time music community here in the Twin Cities. #In the two years since my divorce, they have been a tremendous source of inspiration. #The local jams are numerous, and have always been open and welcoming to newcomers. #I've made a whole new circle of friends, and even my mandolin playing has improved to the point where I'm now part of an old-time string band -- something I never would have imagined a few short years ago.

[Gail Hester]

I am thankful for all the courageous men and women in uniform that risk their lives doing what their country and communities ask them to do and who make it possible for the rest of us to live safe and free.

[Stephen Perry]

For all who call.

For the world we've made for humans, although I despair for the way we take it for granted.

For my family.

This year, for my wife's survival and recovery.

Thank you all.

[Greenmando]

I am thankful that I have a wife who loves me and tolerates me. I believe she knows me better than I do.