Good morning, everyone! Today is a day for thanks. I’ll get to that in a minute.

So I had to run through some old 100 Objects posts for a potential new publishing project. I know I’m not the first to say that it’s not easy rereading your old writing. I’m a writer, it comes with the territory. But in addition to being a writer, I have the added bonus of being Jacke Wilson.

As longtime readers will know, that is not an easy job.

So I get to paragraphs like these three, from The Burger Car, and I just start to shiver.

I can reach back to the jingling sound that reminds me of a prayer wheel and transports me to Tibet, or the smell of soy and garlic in a sizzling wok that pulls me back to the night markets of Taiwan. The hot sand under my feet that summons forth the island off the coast of Thailand, and the nights I spent listening to Billie Holiday and watching sunsets with a bartender named Cy. Or the forkful of grilled salmon that brings me to the bed and breakfast in Alaska, or the sip of San Miguel that returns me to the nightclub in Manila, or the froth on the pint of Guinness that drops me back in the deep smoky basement of the Pub in the basement of Ida Noyes.

I did all that, that was me! I have other memories to draw upon! Indeed, a whole portmanteau! My mind does not need to stay trapped in the car I don’t like, dwelling in the gloom of my own weakness and stupor!

I start up the car and honk the horn out of sheer excitement.

I shiver, I literally shiver, because I’ve forgotten exactly what’s coming, but I know, I sense, I feel the doom. I watch poor Jacke as I would a character I’m fond of but am glad I’m not. He’s Charlie Brown running at the football, over and over, and I’m glad I’m not him. Except I am him! And except the football is not a metaphor for life, it’s life itself. It’s life, it’s life, it’s life….

(Read the whole story here: A History of Jacke in 100 Objects #8 – The Burger Car)

BUT today is a day to rejoice, because in spite of all that, things are still pretty good. Yes, even in Jackeland, where football coaches are intensely fallible, blog posts are disastrous, father-son bands break up, and spelling bees are thrown.

Why? Because of you, my friends. The readers and listeners who keep me going. It’s not too much to say I look forward to these exchanges. I know from your comments (and emails and all the other feedback) that I’m not alone. There’s a football out there, and we’re forever running toward it, and life will pull it away and we’ll all go flying through the air and land flat on our backs. Yes, it’s true, and you know it as well as I do. But we’ll do all that together, and that makes all the difference in the world.

I’ll be back on Sunday night with a preview of our week, and of course on Monday with another History of Literature episode. Enjoy your weekend!