A Thanksgiving message from Gary Oldman

7 thoughts on “A Thanksgiving message from Gary Oldman”

    1. JesseS

      It is really odd is when you hear Oldman’s real speaking voice (not the voice he uses in the linked video or any other role). He sounds like he should be two feet tall and kinda sad.

      Then again how would I know that is his real speaking voice? Sometimes I wonder if he and Idris Elba are shape shifters, maybe even the same guy.

  5. Brad Warthen Post author

    There’s actually a strong connection between this post and the one after it. The only first-person-shooter game I own is Call of Duty, World at War. Gary Oldman’s is one of the two star voices on it. He voices Spt. Reznov of the Red Army. The other is Kiefer Sutherland as Sgt. Roebuck.

  6. Brad Warthen Post author

    Excerpts from the E.J. Dionne Thanksgiving column referenced above:

    A genuine sense of gratitude is rooted in the realization that when I think about all that I am, all that I have, and all that I might have achieved, I cannot claim to have done any of this by myself. None of us is really “self-made.” We must all acknowledge the importance of the help, advice, comfort and loyalty that came from others.

    Gratitude can flow not just to individuals but also to a family, a neighborhood, a society or a nation….

    It seems to fair to assume that gratitude may come more easily to those who are religious. The religious person, after all, sees the universe and everything in it as having been set in motion by a benevolent deity. This is why humility is a virtue preached, in one way or another, by nearly every religious tradition—even if religious people do not always practice it, and even if many non-religious people do.

    Gratitude is built into the very structure of most forms of faith….

    But religious gratitude is neither automatic nor obvious. Many who are poor and disenfranchised regularly thank God for blessings, even when so much about their lives seems cursed. Perhaps those for whom life can be so fragile are more inclined than the privileged to be grateful when things do not fly apart entirely.

    And for the fortunate person, religious gratitude can be deformed by arrogance or challenged by doubt. Someone who is lucky and thanks God for his fortune may not even consider why God might have left so many across town or on the other side of the world to live in despair. And the religious soul who does ponder such injustices must ask why a loving God has not simply delivered everyone already….

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