It is a gift to be treasured, a gift to be thankful for. Breathe in the slightly chill fall air, see the blue of the morning sky, the clear dark of the November night. Appreciate it. Give thanks. Thanks for that collection of strivers, lay-abouts, fools and heroes that are your family and friends. Thanks for a meal to share with them, and a home to share it in — however humble, overmortgaged or in need of a good cleaning.
And since, even in tough times, there is so much for American suburbanites to be thankful for — warm and well fed and watching TV — consider giving something back to life.
There is a gift, a commitment, a donation each person may offer. Consider signing up to be an organ donor. Notify the motor vehicle department and get a new driver’s license with the small heart symbol of the organ donor on it. Tell family so they know. Talk about it to other people who might consider signing up themselves.
There are some 112,000 Americans awaiting organs, according to the national Organ Procurement Transplant Network. From January to August this year, fewer than 19,000 organ transplant operations were performed. Most of those were either organs donated by people who’d died or living donors who shared organs such as kidneys with relatives in need.
To sign up as a donor doesn’t cost a thing. And what donors are offering to give — to share with another human being in desperate need — is what they’re most thankful for on holidays like this themselves: days of work and relaxation, nights of dinner and family and love, the breathtaking beauty and miraculous wonder of life itself.
There is no greater gift.
—M.R.
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