on being thankful

I really like Thanksgiving.
I love gathering with my family, spending the day with people I don’t get to see very often, and sitting down for a massive dinner that I didn’t have to cook.
Is there a better time for a List Of Seven?
Today, I am thankful for:

  1. Creative energy, used to bring Joy into the world.
  2. Seeing my cousin Dustin today.
  3. My invitation to the Cast and Crew screening of Trek X
  4. Finally looking back on my teenage years with more joy than regret.
  5. My wife cuddling me because she loves me…not because she’s trying to stay warm.
  6. Ferris, when she looks at me and says, “What?”
  7. I am thankful for this website, and the readers who have come together from around the world to share in my stupid life, riding the roller coaster of success and failure, triumph and despair. I know for a fact that I never would have grown from struggling actor-slash-has-been to aspiring writer-slash-actor.

Our extended Thought For Today comes from Bob in Iowa, Katie’s father:


What I Am Thankful For
———————-
I am thankful that my daughter’s surgery went smoothly and successfully. Her kidneys will not develop horrible problems later in life, and a small scar is indeed an easy price to pay for her health.
I am thankful for the skill of the pediatric urology surgeon and the team that worked on my daughter. Their skill has proved in her case, as in many others I’m sure, that disciplined modern medicine is something that we should all be glad for. I am thankful for whoever the person or team was that invented the careful system of moving around and passing instruments in the modern surgery room. I am thankful for whoever the person or team was that sterilizes those instruments at the University of Iowa Hospital, and indeed in all hospitals.
I am thankful that my daughter’s recovery has been as impressive as the surgery itself. She is home now, running around like a precocious 16-month-old should, and she will be able to enjoy a Thanksgiving Dinner with her family.
I am thankful that my daughter is running around like a precocious 16-month-old, and I will try to remember that the next time she gets into something that she knows she shouldn’t or knocks something over. I am thankful that she will continue to grow up healthy. I am thankful that I have a daughter.
I am thankful to Wil Wheaton, who responded to an email I wrote at a time when I was at my worst, my most desperate. That simple request, which was fulfilled despite Wil’s having absolutely no obligation to, lead to an outpouring of love that not only affected me very deeply and helped my daughter in a very real way, it seems to have affected everyone involved in some way.
I am thankful to the complete strangers who, upon reading the entry in Wil Wheaton’s blog, made a simple choice to take a moment from their day and send some love my daughter’s way. I swear to God that I felt it, and I believe in my heart that it helped both with the surgery and with the swift recovery. I just wish there was another word to describe a person whom I have never met besides “stranger”, because that name is so ill-fitting to the people who took the time to help my daughter.
But most of all, I am thankful that despite the horrible things that we see every day on television and read about every day in newspapers, there is enough love in the world to selflessly help a little girl in need of love, and that we really are a loving and caring race. More often than not, we seem to forget what we really are. I am thankful that this opportunity arose to remind us all.
Thank you all for your compassion and kindness. Katie is recovering wonderfully, and I don’t doubt for a second that all of your goodwill and love is a MAJOR reason for that. I really cannot thank any of you enough, other than to say, “Thank you.” May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving surrounded by family and friends.
– Bob Roth, WWDN fan

55 thoughts on “on being thankful”

  2. Everytime I read Bobs emails I cry.
    I am so glad his daughter is home and OK. I had her in my thoughts hoping she’d be home for Thanksgiving with her family. He sounds like such a great dad and a great person.
    Proops to Wil for being the cool guy he is and attraction all these great people to his site.
    I’m glad I found this place.

  3. Now seems an appropriate time to say
    Thank You Wil
    for WWDN. You have created a truly great place, and you should be really proud of it.
    🙂

  4. I inexplicably woke up at 5am on the day of Katie’s surgery – just in time to put in my good mojo thoughts for their family.
    Agree with LadySprite about crying when I read Bob’s mails. And agree with ionicus this is a terrific time to thank Wil for WWDN. May applause roar throughout the threads of the Internet!

  5. Bob, thank you for the opportunity, and thank you for so beautifully encapsulating the wonderful and I believe true nature of humanity as a whole. You wrote it all so beautifully.
    I hope Katie continues to heal well and that she suffers nothing more severe in life than the odd bump and bruise!
    Thanks very much, Wil, for being the human being you are, for reaching out to this man, and for becoming a conduit for all of us to express our best hopes for a little girl we’ll never be privalaged to see but who touched our hearts anyway.
    This is why your site rocks, and why I visit it once or twice a day.

  6. Your little girl is very welcome to all the best wishes and love that winged their way to her. Too often we put a condition on things like this that shouldn’t have any conditions.
    Happy thanksgiving to my fellow readers who are American!

  7. Well said. I guess we now know the true meaning of “Peace on Earth” in this special season. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Go easy on those stuffing!
    Big wave to Katie and Bob in Iowa (you know, James T. Kirk was from Iowa…..)
    Commander of the Red October signing off!

  8. Nice to know there’re good things still happening
    in this world. Better yet, making good things
    happening in this world.
    Good Luck, Bob. I hope for quick recovery of
    your daughter Katie.
    -b

  10. I’m so glad Katie is ok, there is so much to be thankful for that we just don’t see on a day to day basis. For some reason our eyes are tuned to see the bad, not the good. I hope she carries on doing well, a small scar is a really small price to pay – when she gets a bit older she’ll probably show it off to the other kids in the playground anyway!

  11. As it seems a very appropriate time, I will say these things. Even though I’m in Australia and thanksgiving isn’t really celebrated by most of us here, I beleive that wherever you are, you can still give thanks.
    I give thanks for my wonderfull family and friends who are always there for me, I give thanks that Katie is at home, healthy, with Bob and his wife, I give thanks that Wil has such an enjoyable and entertaining website and is such a talented writer, and I give thanks that even though alot of hatered is going on in the world, that love can always over power it.
    By the way Wil, this website is the best.

  12. I’m glad your thanksgiving went so well Will. I was also overjoyed to read Bob’s e-mail. You are doing so many great things here, Wil, and you continue to inspire me to press on with my own site. Keep it up!

  13. I’m thankful to you, Wil, for proving that Hollywood is not the all-corrupting force I once though it to be. You have proven to us all that it is possible to run the gauntlet of stardom and emerge with your heart and soul intact.
    Thankyou, Wil, for helping to make the world a better, happier, kinder place.

  14. Good for you Bob.
    And a big huzzah for our Uncle Willy! (And the Doctors and surgeons involved of course….)

  15. Wow! Those are great things to be thankful for.
    Here’s to creativity, love, humor, and interesting people in the world.
    Without it life would be a very dreary existence.

  16. Are American’s thankfull to the ‘Native American’s’ who where butchered and forced out of they’re land so you could live in America. Probably not.

  17. see, we’re not all bad. I knew i wasnt alone 🙂
    There is more collective good on this planet than bad, and i have no doubt that we will prevail over all the bad shit. Not with gods help or anything, but each others. Nice one WWDN buddies! We are the start of something big!

  18. wil, you rock, man.
    i’m with katie, you’ve proven that no all of hollywood is unapproachable, that there are still some people w/ their feet planted firmly on the ground…and have big hearts, too.

  19. You’re welcome, Bob. You’re welcome. And thankyou for keeping us updated. It is just so great to hear that Katie’s all better now.
    Katie, baby, I wish you smiles, health and happiness for the rest of your long, long, life.
    Isn’t it hard to decide just seven things, out of all the wonderful things in the world to be thankful for? Great list, Wil.
    Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

  20. I remember a Star Trek:TNG episode when Wesley used his positive energy to help the Traveler. Maybe Star Trek was not all science fiction after all. Since all of our positive energy helped Bob and Katie maybe we can change the world. Keep up the good work Wil. You are touching more lives that you know.

  21. Good health is so much to be thankful when you’re back from not having it. Every day of the year. This thread gave me some vivid flashbacks. I didn’t want it to. Hospitals are stressful places. But the positive energy of people around a patient is such a boost. There is a new discovery on a higher level…of the importance of family and connections to others. All become stronger for it. The energy is there as you so discovered and so eloquently put it, Bob.

  22. Bob,
    May Katie continue to get into things she knows she shouldn’t for many years to come. I am so thankful that all is well with your family.

  25. Happy to hear about Katie Bob. Best of luck on her recovery. I’ll continue to look south and sent some more mojo your way (I’m in Minnesota).

  26. Thank you all for making this site special to so many.
    Thank you Wil, The Creator.
    Thank You Bob, and Katie, for bringing so much positive energy into the world.
    [This from an “emotionally detatched” (not my words, but it makes sense) guy in Ireland.]
    Dev.

  27. I feel the love in these entries..I really do! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving..May god bless everyone!Thank you Wil and Bob for sharing this story with us! Much love!

  28. I’m thankful for many things this year:
    – That Bob, Katie and family are home enjoying what i expect to be a long and entertaining life.
    – That Wil isn’t a stuck up jerk like so many ‘celebrities’ i’ve met. He really isn’t a celebrity, I tend to think of that as a dirty word.
    – I’m thankful that I was able to spend time with some of my family, on this day of glutton, which I have missed out on for several years.
    – I’m thankful that I am able to sit here at my computer and bitch and complain and can’t be thrown in jail for it.
    Thank you all. Happy Thanksgiving!
    Tim

  29. Bob,
    I am glad that everything is working out. As Will Rogers once said, “There are no strangers, only friends that I haven’t met yet.” Nice to meet you, friend.
    Peace,
    Mike Bailey
    Thespar

  30. Wil,
    First of all Happy Thanksgiving. Lots of love to you and your family this time of year. Now it is time for Christmas shopping.AAAGH!!!!!!!
    Bob,
    Glad the surgery worked out ok. Best to you and your little girl.
    Later, Wil.
    Matt……

  31. Wil,
    Small things such as helping Bob and Katie is what is changing this little web page from a fan-site to a true community. Everyone who reads about Katie’s surgery or what Ferris and the kids are doing, or how special Anne is to you has become part of the WWDN family. It’s a great thing.

  32. Go, go, Wil, Wil
    Go, go, Katie, Katie,
    Go, go, Bob, Bob,
    Go, go, doctors, doctors,
    Go, go, Mojo, Mojo
    Go, go, go
    Yeah!

  33. Bob’s email was an eloquent testimony to family and love, brought to us by WWDN. so I’m thankful for the internet which can provide community to those who care to find it.
    Great job, Wil!

  34. I hope Bob will tell this story to Katie one day; I hope he saves a print-out of all of the postings here, so she can read them for herself. I wonder if Bob will have to explain the crude state of the internet as we know it today, compared to the wonderous place it will be when Katie is grown. Maybe in an ideal future, everyone will know everyone else because of the internet, and the concept of “strangers” will have faded away. Blessings to all my “acquaintences” out there during this holiday season.

  36. Stone…heart…breaking…
    Bob, like all fathers, you are the luckiest man in the world.
    Heres to small blessings….and turkey.

  37. I’m so glad Katie’s surgery turned out ok. This site continues to amaze me… every time that I think it can’t get any better, it does. It’s so nice to be reassured that people out there do care about others.
    You’re a lucky man. That’s meant for both Wil and Bob. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
    Oh, and as a side note, I happen to be part of the sterile processing department. Not at the U of Iowa, but another University Hospital. Thank you, Bob, for remembering the “grunts” who don’t make $60/hour but who take steps to ensure the health of patients.
    Congrats again. Love and Best Wishes,
    A friend you haven’t met yet.

  38. Wil, I ‘lurk’ here, don’t comment much. I am continuously amazed by the depth of emotion your posts bring out in me. Very cool and Thank You.

  43. I know I’m being a dick here, but this isn’t bob roth dot net. Bob strikes me as competent at expressing himself in his own right; how about if he makes his own weblog somewhere and people who are interested can go there?
    I know it’s Wil’s site and he can and should do whatever he wants, but the mass delusion that people sending out positive thoughts or mojo or whatever actually made a difference in a medical procedure many miles away is creeping me out. Nice thoughts are great, but their actual utility in a situation like this is about as grounded in reality as Scientology.
    I’m interested in much of what Wil (and the rest of you) have to say, but I’ve heard enough from Bob for a while.

  45. Wil & gang,
    Here’s some extra Crucian mojo for Bob, Katie, Antika and her mom. The last of November is Hurricane Thanksgiving Day in the Caribbean, so latch on to a piece of that big blast of vibes comin’ up from the islands. There’s plenty to spare.
    [rant]
    Note to those who have a problem with Wil the mojo thing: go away. If the man wants to let his site be used to bring some comfort to people, more power to him! It makes not a whit of difference whether there is really mojo, qi, vibes or the good thoughts of the god of your choice; the point os that a lot of people managed for a space in time to think about someone else, and wish them well.
    [/rant]
    NB: Folks in the islands end the hurricane season by expressing thanks they didn’t get clobbered, or that they didn’t get clobbered as badly as they might have. On the first day of the season (Hurricane Supplication Day) they basically send out those vibes trying to keep the big storms offshore — way offshore! St. Croix was hurricane-free from 1921-1989. Think about it.
    Got MY mojo workin’. Do you?
    Thumper

  46. Nurses at Childrens’ Hospital here are rotated out after 1 year to avoid burnout.The wards:Wall colors & motifs are not random choices.3 cousins went there & the staff give 500%. Hold a hand in chemo, talk w/them,occupy w/fun.Staff take worries home with them & phone work for updates on kids they get attached to.They think about them & hope for the best.
    Patients DO handle illness better & recover faster in a supportive enviro.Patients pick up on fear seen in others’ faces.(I had to ask my mom to leave the pre-op room once).Bob found comfort in others good wishes,it transfers to the tot. So be it. My Drs had family update meetings-It’s what I meant about stronger connections w/others & appreciation of it.It wasn’t delusional.Polar Opposite:I knew a 20 yr old w/o visitors. An aunt said she’d come by on his birthday. He sat/waited by a phone,facing the lobby til 10 p.m. for a no-show. He wasn’t consolable,he holed up in his room. He didn’t do so well, and eventually ended up being transferred.

  47. If above was too off topic,please remove it asap.
    I would like to know what “mojo” is though. I’ve never heard the term.

  48. So very glad to hear this news, though, with all the people pulling for little Katie, I am unsurprised.
    My family tops my List of Seven, as it does every year. My wife, my daughter, my son (even if he refuses to sleep the night through still, my parents…
    Thanks again for bringing this together, Wil =)

  49. Dear Bob,
    I had the same procedure done when I was 4 years old, in 1980, when it was a relatively risky new thing. This is one of my first memories-being in the hospital. I imagine it’s not even as invasive as it was back then. Just so you know, I am well and fine, and have never had any complications, other than a few scars, which your little girl probably won’t have to deal with, as the surgery has probably improved by leaps and bounds since then. I send you my love and support, and to your daughter and the rest of your family also.

  50. P. S. In response to one of the first posts here, the scars aren’t really in the kind of place you show off on the playground!

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