Today · Jonthan Hickson

Let us move on

December 3, 2022·45 min·4 clips

John Hickson reflects on gratitude and helping others the day before Thanksgiving.

John Hickson records a series of short monologues from his bus between November 23 and December 2, 2022. The recordings open with Thanksgiving gratitude and prayers for people eating out of dumpsters. He positions the current era as possibly the biblical plague and prays for his riders, including boisterous students he recently told to transfer to a different bus if they can't respect him. He reflects on his small TikTok following and his adopted kids. A recurring motif is the idea of foundation: a former coworker named Mr. Bill told him to put away a paycheck a month, and Hickson calculates he would have had close to $25,000 if he had split his pay into retirement for four years. His son has told him plainly that he took his eye off the money by splitting rent instead of buying a house. Hickson plans to retire at 68, possibly after one more summer, with no car payment and all bills paid. He wants to travel overseas — Africa, Europe, somewhere other than the Caribbean. He describes his stocks and a 401K. He talks about wanting to buy a few Christmas presents and feeling festive for the first time in years. He vents about jobs where you can't speak freely, names U.S. Food Service and LHG, and says the union voted with the company, pushing him to retire. He complains about white panhandlers in formerly Black neighborhoods and about young men in their teens and twenties begging instead of going to school, including his own grandson who refuses to return. He discusses a Jerry Jones story from roughly 57 years ago and criticizes how media digs up decades-old actions. He recounts his uncle driving through Lake City, South Carolina during a cross burning. He closes each segment with his mother's refrain: I'll pray for you, please pray for me.

As heard by us

A Thanksgiving-week monologue about gratitude, prayer, and staying in character under pressure.

The piece stays with gratitude, prayer, and the plain duty to help when help is possible. It moves from travel and family to followers, work strain, money pressure, schooling, and the warning against letting other people pull someone out of character.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a day-before-Thanksgiving voice note that turns gratitude into hard advice.

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