Giving Thanks for Bubbles

I guess this could have been “Thanks V” or the fifth annual list of stupid (and some serious) stuff that I’m thankful for…..but as I read back on the last four, I see they’re pretty much repeats.

“Ya Phil, we get it. You’re thankful for Bruce, Sidney Crosby, Jameson’s, Andrew McCutchen, Ben, sex….blah blah blah………”

So I guess I’ll spare anyone reading this year and I’ll go with this:

I am thankful for the bubble.

I am thankful that my wonderful parents, especially my mom, who stayed home to raise us, kept us in our little Macioce – Penn Hills – Jesus and your parents love you – bubble, as long as possible. It was like living on the INSIDE of a snow globe, with all of the crap and reality on the outside.

Sooner or later I learned there was life outside my house and outside Penn Hills.  I learned that Protestants were NOT weird, there were normal kids that went to Gateway and Plum schools, and that The Beatles and Barry Manilow weren’t the only music out there, and that this Bruce Springsteen in the jeans and red baseball cap in his back pocket was pretty damn good too.

Of course along with popping that bubble came reality.  There were kids that (gasp) smoked and talked back to adults, and people that weren’t that nice.  Some didn’t even believe in God, or even worse – like the Pittsburgh Steelers!!!! And pretty girls could cause a shit load of pain.

I enjoyed thanksgivings during the years I was in the bubble. The food, smells, and warmth of my house were just a given.  I made construction paper turkeys and pilgrims and my mom put them up and thought they were the greatest pieces of art she’d ever seen. Mine were better than my brothers’ but my mom would lie to make them feel better J

Thanksgiving was about Pilgrims and Indians having a great meal together on some Plymouth rock,  and later about some kids somehow having a dinner of toast, popcorn, and jelly beans without their parents, and their dog duking it out with a lawn chair while setting up the feast.

The Detroit Lions lost to someone at 12:30 and the Dallas Cowboys beat someone at 4:00.  We ate too much and fell asleep. Thirty days til Christmas. Game over.

******

Today, in 2012, I miss my mom.  I miss her food.  I miss her decorations.  I miss her love. I miss her bubble.  I see one of my two brothers maybe once a year because of a stupid family misunderstanding.  No Macioce lives at 2708 Ford Avenue, or even in Penn Hills anymore. 

Today, I know that shortly after our feast with the Indians we wiped their race off the continent and took it for our own…..and that ironically I’m also thankful for the American bubble that resulted when we formed this country as a result. I feel strange being thankful when such awful things on the other sides of the oceans that surround that country happen on a daily basis. 

I feel strange being thankful when some people who are dear to me are having such a hard year of losing loved ones, and some going through such hard times, and never seeming to get a break. 

But I’m thankful for the strength and courage they show, their example, and that they have the time to show me love despite what they are going through.  I’m also thankful for the bubble they must have lived in at some point, and that maybe the memories of their bubbles help them through….

 Sorry for the depressing nature of my “thankful” post this year.  It’s sort of where I am today.  But as I write this, I look across the room at the coolest eleven year old kid I’ve ever met playing video games, and upstairs sleeps a girl that is more wonderful than I ever thought a daughter could be. 

I hope I kept their bubble in existence as long as possible.  I know teen and pre-teen realities are in their face now and they learn more of the world every day, but I hope there comes a day on a thanksgiving in their future that they can remember our bubble we created, and they can smile as they try to build their own.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still thankful for Elf, Candy Corn, beer, sex in green jello (and whoever actually does that), and all kinds of things that are far from serious.

I just wanted to acknowledge all the bubbles out there that we create, not only for our families, but for each other.  So many of you are a bubble for me.  When I’m in your houses I feel at home.  When I laugh with you – in person or on line – I forget reality and that is a brief bubble too.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I’m thankful for my work bubble, my facebook bubble, my music bubble (especially the Bruce bubble…..the concert last month was sexual.), and so thankful for my friend bubble………well except my REALLY conservative friends….(kidding!).

Anything that counts as taking my mind off of the pain of others is a bubble and that is what I celebrate today.  It would be a little more fun if Big Ben were playing and there was #%#@$R%#$ ng hockey to watch but maybe that’s nit picking.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  I hope you’re warm and safe with loved ones and in a bubble of some sort…..and far from any sharp objects!!!!

I’m going to go eat an entire pumpkin pie in one sitting while watching Elf.