Thanksgiving is a great holiday. It’s a time when we reflect and take stock. Originally, it was a harvest festival, and in a way, it still is; the year is nearing its end, and this is a good time to think about and appreciate the results of all our efforts over the year. It’s a time to think about all we have to be thankful for.
Here are a few of mine.
I’m thankful to be, at heart, after all my travels, still a rural/small town kid from Iowa. I left Iowa for good in 1987, but I’m back at least once a year to visit family and friends. Whenever we land there and head out of the airport to see the familiar rolling hills and fields, even after all those years, I still get a feeling of “I’m back, Iowa.” Iowa in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when I was coming up, had a singular personality. People didn’t hurry. People waved when you passed them on a gravel road. When I went into town to the gas station or the grocery store, the employees there knew me; they knew who my parents were. That counts for a lot, and we get much the same feeling now, here, in our little Susitna Valley community. Which brings me to:
I’m thankful for Alaska. It’s hard to overstate how much my wife and I love it here. We love our little community, where we all have the privacy of our houses out in the woods, and yet we all know each other. We all know when local kids are graduating high school, we know when someone gets married, and when someone else gets divorced. Best of all, we look out for one another.
Alaska itself, though, is really something. As I often say about the Great Land, we love it because it is vast, clean, wild, and free. It’s hard, even for an Alaskan, to wrap your head around how big Alaska is, or how empty much of it is. There are places in the lower 48 where you can stop, look out over a stretch of wilderness, and know that if you started walking, it may be 10 or 20 miles before you cross a road or find a village or town. In Alaska, there are many places where you will never cross another road or find another person.
It’s a wonder, living in a place where you can have a moose casually bed down under a big black spruce in your yard, or hear wolves howling in the night, or wake up to see a bear sitting on your deck. We love it here; my wife and I are here in Alaska, both happier than either of us has been in our lives.
I’m thankful for my country. For all its recent travails, the United States is still the greatest country in the history of mankind. I’m hoping it stays that way, just a little longer. Our founders were brilliant indeed to have created this grand republic, to write some of the most effective governing documents in human history; I’d be even more thankful if more politicians would actually read them.
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I’m thankful for my family. Four daughters, three sons-in-law, three granddaughters, three grandsons. They’re all doing well. Being a father and grandfather has brought more meaning and purpose to my life than anything else I’ve ever done, with one exception, and I think I’m doing a pretty good job of it. After all, I learned from the best. Two of our kids are medical professionals, and two are freelance graphic artists. Art runs in the family, it seems, although it clearly skips a generation.
The exception?
I’m thankful for my wife. She is the love of my life, the light of my heart, the center of gravity of my universe. She has more physical and emotional courage than anyone I’ve ever known. I’ve seen her, as a 1st lieutenant, back bird colonels into corners; she never was overly impressed with rank, especially when she knew she was right.
She is Mom to kids, natural and adopted. She is Grandma to the next generation, and in time, when the third generation comes along, she will be Nana to them, as is our family tradition. (Great-grandparents in my family have always been “Nana” and “Papa.”) She loves her family, she loves our home in Alaska, she loves our state and its vast, wild, clean, and free nature. And to my very good fortune, after 34 years of marriage, she still loves me.
She’s smarter than I am, too.
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And, finally, I’m thankful for RedState. After over 30 years in the medical device and biotech industries, I never thought about returning to journalism, something I’ve only dabbled in since high school. I never harbored any notion of starting a new career in my sixties, but here I am. I’m thankful to RedState and Townhall media for the opportunity, and most of all, I’m thankful for the chance to, in some small way, influence national events for the better. All I’m doing, of course, is saying what I think, but honestly, that’s what makes it work. Now, as I approach senior citizen status, I’m finally realizing the truth of the old saying, “do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Most of all, I’m thankful to you, RedState readers, most notably you VIP readers. I read your comments, and while time may not always allow me to give a thoughtful answer, I do read what you all have to say. I’m thankful to you all, who give meaning and purpose to my work here.
Thank you all so much. May you take delight and joy in this holiday, in which we all contemplate and take stock of all the good things in life. Happy Thanksgiving.
