I wrote a list of 50 Things I’m Grateful For (not counting the freedom to let my participles dangle as much as I want) for Thanksgiving release on www.hiringhowto.com, so I’m not going to try to double up and create a different list here. John Forde, of Copywriter’s Roundtable, sent this post out today. I like his take on the challenge. Sometimes, looking at a list of problems I don’t have can feel like “cheap” gratitude, but it’s still gratitude, and that’s good.
%%%%
COPYWRITER’S ROUNDTABLE #491
November 23, 2010
Pull Up a Plate and Feast: A Cornucopia of Copywriting Delights
“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
– William Arthur Ward
In the States, this Thursday is a time of Thanksgiving. Your ovens will bulge, the relatives will descend, the wine will pour, the belt buckles will loosen.
At least, let’s hope so.
I’m a sucker for sentimentalism and tradition.
Which is why, I guess, I felt inspired just a second ago to sweep aside the generic copywriting insights I had lined up for you today, to instead dig up our CR message from two years ago. You’ll remember, that was just in the wake of a worldwide financial meltdown. And you guys were about edgy as a 30-lb. turkey locked up overnight in an ax factory.
So what did we do?
The same thing we’re about to do again, which is glare right into the business end of those worries until they cough a little wonder and light.
As follows..
- Thank merciful God for procrastination. Can you imagine how many busses you never stepped in front of… or how “sure-thing” investment flops you’ve missed… simply because you were “too late to the party?”
- Show some thanks too, toward that love of your life who dumped you back in college or high school or maybe kindergarten. Think of the people you never would have met, the places you never would have gone, or the family you might never have had if she/he hadn’t.
- Kudos to the heavens for giving us November drizzle and icy winter blasts, a month or so ahead of schedule. How else would we remember how great it is to feel warm and dry and to have a roof over our heads? Everyone should be so lucky.
- Thanks, too, for the politicians who make mistakes… the loved ones who irk us… and the bone- headed strangers who blunder through their lives, as reported on the nightly news. Some of us would never know what it is to feel like geniuses, if it weren’t by comparison.
- Let’s heap up some hefty helpings of heartfelt indebtedness to crying children, honking cars, and men with jack-hammers too. How else would silence sound so sweet? Not to mention what it’s done for iPod sales and my shares in Apple.
- Let us honor, too, the hordes that descend on houses during holidays (say that six times fast) and stay for dinner. How much worse would you feel if they didn’t want to come?
And if I can get little more serious now (at this point, imagine the champagne glass — half full — held high as we bring the toast in for a landing)…
Thanks in endless waves to our mentors and colleagues, and our customers and friends — in all cases, a confluence in both definition and generosity, not just this year but in all those years that have preceded this moment. Thanks to family. Thanks to our children, who make everything about waking up worthwhile. And thanks to my wife — all our spouses — for everything they do to hold it all together. Most of all, again, sincere thanks to you, for reading these issues and writing in with comments. It goes without saying, I couldn’t and wouldn’t have done it without you.
Thank god for our health.
And thanks especially to all you who made donations to my family’s “Movember” drive to raise research money to fight prostate cancer.
(I know who you are, because your name pops up right there on the site… seriously, I’m deeply grateful.)
If you’re in America and about to celebrate Thanksgiving this week, I hope it’s a feast beyond feasts and the best of your living memory.
If not, well then, go out and hit a McDonald’s… or a top run restaurant… and have a great (and grateful) night anyway.
Happy Thanksgiving!
P.S. This is the last full week of “Movemember,” the anti prostate cancer fundraiser I’ve told you about.
So far, we’ve raised $1,220.
I hope we’ll manage to raise more. And a lot of that, of course, might depend on you.
If you haven’t given yet and you’re inclined too, make sure you stop by and sign up here.
http://us.movember.com/mospace/959346
****************************************************
THE MISSING LINK: The Stories that Shape You
Not to get all schmaltzy, but here’s something worth doing, now that you’ve got family coming to town.
http://nationaldayoflistening.org/
****************************************************
PETITE THANKS
Barka: http://copywritersroundtable.com/signup
Kiitoksia: http://us.movember.com/mospace/959346
Oh, and this…
Efharisto poli.
P.S. Everything Between the %%%% (above) and the %%%%%% (below) is © 2010 by John Forde.
BY THE WAY, if you ever want to reproduce one of these CR articles in a blog, in an email, in a book, on a milk carton… or on one of those banners they hang on the back of airplanes at the beach… GO AHEAD!
You’ve got my blessing.
Just promise you’ll make sure you’ll include a link back to my website and encourage your readers to sign up for $78 worth of free gifts.
http://copywritersroundtable.com
%%%%%%
John’s emails are useful if you write for a living, BTW. You might want to sign up for his email list.
What’s on your gratitude list this year? Let me know in the comments.
Speak Your Mind