Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers (and also to the larger number of people in the world who are not my readers, at least, not yet 
).
I hope this least-commercial-of-major-U.S.-holidays finds you rich in what matters, i.e. loving relationships, good health, right livelihood, community, connection to nature and to the God of your understanding.
The winner of “I Am Malala” (book review here) is Kathy Malin, a longtime email subscriber to Diamond-Cut Life. (Both new email subscribers and existing subscribers who offered comments were put into the drawing. I used an online random number generator to pick the winner.)
Malala Yousafzai is the youngest person ever to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. The Taliban’s attempted murder of her last year catapulted her, ironically, from being a Pakistani activist for girls’ education into being a global activist for the 61 million children in the world who are not in school (61 million!).
Malala — clearly rich in what matters — shows us how to not conform to our culture when our culture is sick. While climate change (global warming) is a more subtle entity than the Taliban, I see my nation’s failure to address it as a cultural sickness. We are putting materialism, corporate greed, convenience and dollar-riches over integrity and taking the hard actions needed to address climate change.
We can choose differently than that. Malala inspires me to stay the course.
This Sunday I’ll be posting either on The Art of Subtraction (helpful in staying centered and not overloading ourselves during the holidays), or Top Ten Tips For Not Gaining Weight Over The Holidays (reprint, helpful in a similar but more visceral way). Which would you prefer? How are you celebrating Thanksgiving? My thanks to everyone who entered the drawing.
Related Posts:
How about the new with a link to the historic? (As my sweet husband would say, why choose?)
Ami, consider it done. I like your husband even though I’ve never met him — he lives in my beloved world of both/and.
Congrats to Kathy on winning the book, plus this post serves as a reminder for me to go and put it on my reading list
Jeri, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed when you do eventually read “I Am Malala”. She describes a very different life (Pakistani) and world (Muslim) than yours and mine. But her story proves there is more that unites us all than divides us. Malala and her story remind me of Anne Frank’s “Diary Of A Young Girl”. Both girls were targets of hatred, and transcended their situations with radical love. If people like them weren’t doing this, I would almost swear it couldn’t be done.
Happy Thanksgiving, Jeri. I always like your visits.
Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving and blessings to all.
Kathy, I plan to send your book out in today’s mail — the postage being my only commercial contribution to Black Friday
. Hope you enjoy the book, and get to share it with others. Blessings to you, too.
I vote for Art of Subtraction. The day after Thanksgiving finds me tired, with too many leftovers, a dirty house and Christmas bearing down quietly and quickly in my life. First world problems for sure.
Congratulations Kathy and Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Mike, I hope your appearance means that you’re feeling better. I’m sorry you had been laid low. I plan to come over and visit within the weekend, and see what you and the intrepid Phoenix have been up to.