THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING MY LIFE OF CRIME

Some people never say thank you. I don’t know if their Mamas raised ‘em wrong, or if they’re just natural born ingrates.

I like to think that on the Ungrateful-Wretch to Bubbling-Over-With-Gratitude Continuum I’m around an 8 on a ten-point scale. And that’s mostly because I forget rather than under-appreciate.

So I feel justified taking issue with people who don’t say thanks.

Years ago a friend of mine was at the supermarket and came face to face with the world’s most sullen, miserable, toxic checkout girl. She never looked at him once as he racked up almost two hundred dollars worth of groceries.

He paid, got his change, and nothing else. Finally, he got the point where he couldn’t stand her attitude and had to say something.

“Y’know, it wouldn’t hurt if you at least said thank you,” he said.

She threw him a hateful glare and said, “It’s printed on the bottom of your receipt.”

I have a natural bent toward gratitude (for me it came with age), so when I woke up this Thanksgiving morning I started thinking about all the things I was thankful for.

The first part was easy. My puppy, Kylie, started licking my face as soon as she realized I was awake. (Possibly before, which is why I was up at 6:30.) My wife, daughter, son, daughter-in-law, and grandson were all staying with me for the holidays. I’m sure I’ll be just as grateful on Sunday when they pack up and go.

Here are some random items from my list. I’m grateful for lactose free milk, Google, my local volunteer fire department, spellcheck, fresh berries, The Simpsons, my snow plow guy, Steve Jobs, Rogaine, pasta, NPR, Diane Sawyer, and neither last, nor least, you.

I’ve been a semi-anonymous writer all my life. But getting your first book published changes all that, and I’ve been connected to some of you since the early days of The Rabbit Factory.

Right now I’ve got 56 unanswered e-mails in my lomaxandbiggs inbox, some of them dating back to July. Even though most of you don’t expect a response, I try to write back. But lately I’ve been writing books (2) and blogs (as many as I can get to).

So today is the perfect day to just send out a global thank you. Thanks for reading my books, for recommending them to others, for taking the time to write to me, and for your feedback on my books, blogs, and daily Facebook (and occasional Twitter) rants.

I am driven to write. So the plan is to keep on writing. Quite frankly, it wouldn’t matter if I lived alone on a rock — I would still be writing. But it’s good to have readers. Especially readers like you. Thank you for supporting my life of crime.

So, how about you? What are you thankful for?

Marshall posted on November 26, 2009 1:33 PM