We’re coming up on what my good friend Peter Winter calls his “favorite American holiday.”
Peter is a native of New Zealand and is blessed with an outsider’s insights into the nuances of the American charcter.
He was the president of the company I worked for a couple of decades ago and he would also urge people to kick back, overeat and watch some football on Thanksgiving, but also to set aside specific time for quiet comtemplation about family, grace and gratitude.
To follow The Kiwi’s direction a little early this year, I offer this list of things for which I am genuinely grateful:
- My family. I have a wonderful wife, three great kids, three equally great step-kids and two grandchildren. They keep life interesting and make it fulfilling.
- Veterans Day. I salute the men and women of uniform who have put life on hold and their lives on the line to serve our country.
Although Veterans Day is an observance for all veterans, it’s impossible not to ponder the debt we owe those who died in defense of our nation. It’s one we can never repay, and but one we should always honor by being the best people we can.
- Thanksgiving itself. It’s a quieter holiday, without the frenzied shopping and month-long preparation of Christmas or the sugar highs of Halloween or the explosions of Independence Day.
It’s also a day when it’s entirely appropriate to edge your little brother out of the way and get as much cranberry salad and dressing as you can fit on your plate.
- I am delirously grateful that Kendra Horn and Stephanie Bice have disappeared from my television set and my mailbox.
Good Lord. If they’d taken the money they spent on commercials and mailers, they could have fed the Fifth District for a year.
I understand much of the money came from out-of-state “dark money” groups. When anyone is willing to spend that much to get someone elected, it gives me cause for worry.
I’m Brian Blansett and I approve this message. - As a followup, I am equally grateful that I got to vote last week.
I believe I have missed voting in one election since 1976, when I got to cast my first ballot. That was for a school election between two candidates I didn’t know, and I didn’t feel it was fair to the school to just flip a coin.
This time around, I voted for some Republicans, some Democrats and some Libertarians. Some won and some lost, but I salute them all for putting their names on the ballot.
- I’m grateful for everyone who reads the newspaper in general and my column in particular.
People sometimes stop me for a quick chat when I’m out and about.
I like it when people talk like we’re old friends, even if we don’t really know each other. It shows the power of communication in a world that tends to the superficial.
So, thank you very much for reading this.