For These I Am Thankful

For fifty-nine years Furman Bisher was a sports writer, editor, and columnist for the Atlanta Journal and later the combined Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was an artist. His words were his paintbrush and the paper was his canvas.

He covered over 50 editions of the Masters, Kentucky Derby, World Series and most Super Bowls. I am quite certain that anyone around these parts with any affinity at all for sports has read a few hundred of his columns.

One of his traditions was to write a column each Thanksgiving chronicling the things for which he was thankful. Furman Bisher passed away this year at the age of 93, just three years after his retirement from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. While I will certainly not claim to be Furman Bisher I would like to offer my list of things for which I am thankful on this Thanksgiving.

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I am thankful that I could read Furman Bisher’s columns in the newspaper. I am thankful for his writing skill and thankful for those who taught me to appreciate well written prose. I am thankful to live in a land where the press is free to write what needs to be written.

I am thankful for the opportunity to sit down each week and share thoughts with our community in this newspaper. I am quite certain that more folks read this column each week than hear my sermon on Sunday so what I say in this space is very important to me. I thank Kathy Mudd for allowing me to put these words in this space each week.

I am thankful to live in a place like Monticello. The theme song of the old television show “Cheers” spoke of a place “Where everybody knows your name.” Monticello is such a place. When folks know your name they care about you a little bit more.

I am thankful for leaf blowers in the fall, the sunroof on my car in the spring, the furnace in the winter, and the air conditioner in the summer. I am thankful for the opportunities I’ve had, the places I’ve visited and the things I’ve done.

I am thankful that Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall decided to attend the University of Georgia to play football. I am thankful for Saturday’s “between the hedges” and for hearing the strains of “Glory, Glory” and “Hail to Georgia.” I also know there are others with differing loyalties and I am thankful they join with me in the southern passion for college football.

I am thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the First United Methodist Church of Monticello. I am thankful that I have the opportunity to share God’s Word in that place on Sunday. I am thankful to be a part of a church that care for each other and seeks to minister to the greater community and world.

I am thankful for friends. I am thankful for friends that have always been a part of my life and friends that I have made in this community during my time here. We can’t select our family but we can pick our friends.

I am thankful that my sister and her husband have chosen to retire amongst the swaying pine trees of Georgia.

I am thankful for my daughter. I am proud of her hard work in college and her willingness to work hard at her job. I am thankful I can hear her sing and am thankful that when her car flew off Hwy. 212 and landed in the middle of pasture that she missed that tree and walked out of the emergency room.

I am thankful for my wife. I am not the easiest fellow to live with I am quite certain, but I am thankful that she is willing to do that. She makes me smile when I see her face and she lights up my life. She is also beautiful and smart.

There’s an old football expression that says a team “outkicked its coverage.” I’ve done that. As they say down South Georgia way, I married “up.” By the way as I write these words I am not, to my knowledge, in the “doghouse.”

Above all, I am thankful for the love of God. I am thankful for his mercy, grace, and forgiveness. I am thankful that he sent his Son and my Savior Jesus Christ into the world that through his life, death and resurrection we might find salvation.

When one sits down to put it on paper one truly finds how blessed one is. I thank God for all of my blessings, not only on Thanksgiving but everyday.