Thinking about… how grateful I am, still

Thanksgiving 2024

I wrote this last year, it holds true still. Perhaps this will become a tradition.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I enjoy the intentional reflection of gratefulness it brings out in people. The commercialism that besmirches Christmas has, for the most part, not infected Thanksgiving.¹ It’s hard not to enjoy a day of celebration with family and friends doing not much more than eating, drinking and making merry in whatever form that might be. It’s a chance to be thankful for a respite from our day-to-day travails and find a moment or two of solace and reflection in some form or other.

There is much I am thankful for. I had a privileged upbringing and my professional life has been rewarding. As a good friend said recently, “our debt is greater than our due.” I think a lot about that phrase. It reminds me of the lessons my mother did her best to teach me. Lessons grounded in a sense of noblesse oblige.²

I did my best, but my failures to live up to my mother’s hopes in that regard, especially in my early adult life, are many. I like to think I’ve gotten better. And as grow older I understand why it was important. In the ledger of human kindness and good fortune, there is still a fair amount of debt. I’ll continue to work on that.

Thanksgiving has been a chance to look at that ledger, acknowledge the state of the balance sheet and think about the year to come. More and more I look for ways to even the score. My hope is to see a rebirth of kindness and gratitude in our country and the world. Not because it makes a whole lot of difference to me; I’ve learned to ignore the bad and look on the bright side. My grandchildren, on the other hand, will face a harsh and unsettling reality. They are going to need all the kindness, compassion and togetherness they can muster.

In my little corner of the world, I’m thankful for the opportunity to share my love of the outdoors with family, friends and clients. As a journalist, I’m thankful for the opportunity to wrangle words into a form that informs and entertains others. As a lobbyist, I’m thankful for the chance to petition my government on behalf of those who have no voice.

What I am most thankful for is those who gave me the opportunity to live my life as I have. There are too many to name and I’ll inevitably forget some and wish I hadn’t. As my family gathers at the table today, many of those people will be on my mind and, in some way, be part of the good cheer of the day. I’ll send good wishes to all, but some can no longer hear them. More’s the pity, as they all enjoyed this day.

For years, I have been posting this Thanksgiving Day quote from Theodore Roosevelt. I have yet to find one better on this day.

Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds. -Theodore Roosevelt, Thanksgiving, 1903

And never forget on this day and every day, paraphrasing Winston Churchill, we enjoy Thanksgiving because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

For them, I am eternally thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

1. Or perhaps I’m inured to it since it seems to have started around Halloween this year.

2. She was also fond of the more biblical: “to whom much is given, much is required.” She and TR thought alike, not surprisingly.