{AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT} Thanksgiving Author Hop: S.J. Kincaid

THANKSGIVINGS WITH THE SIBLINGS

by SJ Kincaid

 
I’ve had some great Thanksgivings, but two jump to my mind immediately, since I spent one with my brother, and one with my sister.

BROTHER:.
We have an age difference of twelve years, and he went to boarding school at fourteen, so we had rather more limited interaction than a lot of siblings. He was going to law school and I was on the east coast, so I stayed at his house for a visit one Thanksgiving. Three notable things happened:

1) I scratched up his chair. He had a really nice chair, a very lovely wooden black one. I was in high school, and already writing a lot. Back then, I would listen to music, pace, and swing my keys in circles on a chain while I was plotting what to write next.With such loud music blaring in my ears, I didn’t pay much attention to the fact that the keys were hitting his nice chair. Then: behold. It had tiny key scratches all over it. Not a great thing to have done.

2) I saw Starship Troopers for the first time. I love, love Starship Troopers, back then for the love triangle, later on for the hilarious parody aspect of it. Starship Troopers was the movie I had in mind when I set out to write INSIGNIA.

3) My brother and I came across Army of Darkness on television. We both watched it for the first time. And laughed a lot.

4) My brother cooked a Thanksgiving dinner so awesome, he obviously inherited all the culinary skills. My sister came down from New York and joined us for a sibling dinner. Very fun.

SISTER:
I visited her in New York City while she was in college.

1) I got into a bar though I was technically underage. I felt very cool and sophisticated.

2) We walked back later one night. A man walking the opposite direction abruptly swerved around and started following us. My sister noticed; I didn’t. She grabbed my arm and steered me across the street and I obliviously and loudly asked, “Mer, why are you speeding up? Why are we crossing the street?” Yeah, I was a bit clueless.

3) Meredith offered to take me to visit the World Trade Center. I woke up feeling sleepy that day, and told her I didn’t want to go after all. “It’s always going to be there,” I said.

That last one, I think about a lot. I took absolutely for granted that the world contained certain fixtures, but it does not– not people, not places, nothing that is truly an unchanging constant.

There are so many things in life we just forget the value of while we have them, and sometimes I try to remind myself to cherish these moments like a Thanksgiving in California with my entire family there, because I know it won’t last forever. I know I will want to sear these memories into my mind and remember every detail one day, because life inevitably changes in both sad and wonderful ways.

So this Thanksgiving: I’m just going to give thanks for what I have now, because all we have is this moment.