If I ran the zoo

I know the suspense is killing you if you read my piece last week about whether to fly or not to fly to California to have Thanksgiving dinner with my sister and her extended family.

Wisely, I listened to the experts and opted to stay here, where I am re-designing Thanksgiving and calling it Thankful Giving.

Because of the COVID-19 crisis and a federal government stymied by partisanship, we have a growing number of fellow Americans who are homeless and hungry.

For those of us who are blessed to have the resources to make it through these challenging times with a roof over our head and food on our plate, we can celebrate the holiday season by thankfully giving to those who are suffering the most.

My new title is Uber Mel and I drive around delivering food and clothing to hungry people, from a tent city at City Hall in Bellingham TO UNITY VILLAGE IN FAIRHAVEN to the Women’s Shelter in Mount Vernon.

Because it Is going to take a while for the new vaccines to make a mark, this crisis is going to carry us through Chanukah and Christmas and probably into the late spring, before our day to day lives can be restored to whatever we consider normal.

This week I connected with two of my closest friends from the American Film Institute. We have not seen each other for a long time. One is teaching in North Carolina via Zoom and the other lives in El Salvador, where he grew up, but he is now in Austin, Texas visiting his son and grandchild.

We have time for connection. That call encouraged me to touch base with close high school and college friends whom I have not spoken to in a long while. I am in a very vulnerable age group so we start each conversation making sure everyone is alive and kicking.

Then we share perspectives on how we are dealing with the pandemic practically and philosophically. That is a lot of Ps in one sentence and I would add to that the most important P of all, my Puppy Rosie, who is lying at my feet as I type this column.

Believe me, I could kvetch right now. It is so easy to feel sorry for ourselves because we are missing out on so many aspects of our normal lifestyles. I have not seen my kids for months, there is no hanging out with friends, no karaoke, dancing, tennis or bowling.

But with more time for contemplation, we can realize that we are very blessed to live in a wonderful part of the world and we are even more blessed with the capability to help others who are much more challenged right now than we are.

So please join me in Giving Thanks while reaching out to family, old friends and people in our community who desperately need our support.