Giving thanks

It's traditional to think about giving thanks on this day so after working half the day -- starting at the crack of dawn -- I find myself reflecting on gratitude before I go off for a late Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I find the first thing I'm grateful for is electricity, after having come home last night to a dark and freezing home and I'm grateful I don't live in Iraq where they only get a couple of hours of it a day.

I'm thankful that we still have some semblence of a democracy left after six years of this admistration. I'm thankful Bush hasn't invaded more countries yet and I hope and pray the new Congress can prevent him from doing so. I'm thankful that Americans seem to have come to their senses and realized the gross incompetency of his administration and restored a small measure of the balance of power. I'm thankful that I'm still glad to be living in America. For a while there I thought I might have to leave.

And although I sometimes feel like I'm living in a foreign country, I'm thankful to be living in a place where my breath doesn't freeze in my lungs and my knees don't ache in the arctic cold. And I'm thankful to have this opportunity to affirm what I always thought -- that "red state" people and "blue state" people aren't really that different when you get down to the core values we all hold. We may disagree, on a lot of things, but we're all good people doing the best we can with what we have to work with.

And of course, I'm thankful for you -- my cherished readers -- who have come to feel like friends and family though we have never met on the earthly plane. Thank you for your company and encouragement. I hope every one of you found yourself in a warm place with good company and fine food on this Thanksgiving Day.

[My more personal thoughts on thanks is here.]