We have a Thanksgiving tradition in our family.
Each person at the table for Thanksgiving dinner must name three things they are thankful for before we eat.
It’s a way to reflect on the meaning of the holiday, which is more than a contest to see how much turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy and cranberry sauce and turnip and squash and pecan pie we can eat, or how little we can do the remainder of the day, besides sit around and hold our stomachs.
We spend a lot of time complaining about and dwelling on the negative things that happen to us, whether in our personal lives or in the world beyond.
Sometimes it seems like we’re in a competition to see who can spin the most depressing tale of misery and woe.
We should all spend less time complaining and more time being grateful for all we have.
Here at The Lincoln County New, we are grateful for the freedom of the press.
We are grateful for our readers and advertisers, who make our existence possible.
As editor, I am grateful for a hardworking staff, both of reporters and many behind the scenes, who sometimes have to do the work of three people when one co-worker goes on vacation and another falls ill, and who do so without complaint.
I’m grateful to work for a family who supports objective, professional journalism in a small community.
As an individual, I have much to be thankful for as well.
I am thankful for our home in Bristol, next door to my hometown and near a large and loving family. I am thankful for my wife and son and for our happiness and health.
It’s not as if we have no troubles, either at the LCN or at home.
At the LCN, we continue to grapple with changes in the industry, and at home we deal with the same challenges as any family – squabbles between relatives, losses in the family.
But all the joys of life make these things seem insignificant.
From some of the doom-and-gloom letters we receive each week, you might think we were living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where the fortunate subsist on canned beans in underground shelters and the unfortunate wander the empty streets in rags, waiting for radiation sickness or starvation to take them away.
It is a wonder how people can perceive the world so differently.
For one week, we would love to fill this page with letters that celebrate all we have to be thankful for. What are you thankful for? Tell us in a letter to the editor to info@lcnme.com and we will publish the responses next week.
Happy Thanksgiving!
