A Day of Thanks

To some, Thanksgiving is merely a day off from work.

While it is certainly nice to enjoy a break from the work craziness we often endure, Thanksgiving really should be about being thankful for more than that.

To some, Thanksgiving is about family and those who are blessed with a supportive network understand what a blessing that is each day.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget to be thankful. It shouldn’t take a day on the calendar to remind us. Yes, there are problems in our country. People are still out-of-work. The politicians still spend too much time blaming each other instead of trying to fix the problems which affect the common working man and working woman.

Gasoline prices are still too high. Our country is still involved overseas in places it has no place being. (This one goes back to politicians.)

Yet, as we pause for another Thanksgiving, I offer thanks for:

•The first few pages of a new book and the anticipation of what awaits within.

•A comfortable couch which has provided me with countless hours of quality naptime.

•A childhood from which I can draw positive memories.

•The fact that some people still enjoy reading a newspaper that comes from a printing press and not a computer screen. “Internet journalism” continues to be a blight on the industry which I work in.

•A great group of co-workers who help me make it through each week. It’s not always a given that you will like the people you work with. I consider my co-workers friends. You’ll have to ask them if they consider me as much.

•The new sports talk radio station in Atlanta. There’s nothing like listening to talk about the Falcons at 2:30 a.m.

•Anyone who has spent even one day wearing a uniform in service to our country.

•Those who are elected, even at the local level, and don’t suddenly believe they don’t have to follow rules, regulations and the law.

•The times you hear from an old friend for the first time in years, decades even.

•The days I go home and the electricity is still on.

•The times I make it through with all the lights still green.

•A vehicle which gets me to work each day.

•The person who calls to say they liked something in the paper rather than to say they disliked something in it.

•The “big time” radio station which still has an actual live person in it and not just the phantom radio monkey.

•The times when professional athletes didn’t make so many millions that they became warped in their sense of reality only to want more millions. It’s hard to believe now, but at one time professional football players had to work other jobs in the offseason to make ends meet. Meanwhile, the average fan goes years without a dime per hour raise, if he or she has a job at all.

•For Bill Hughes, who gave a high school student a chance to submit sports articles to his newspaper in 1988. Wow. Has it been that long ago?

•The weeks that go by without news of another bank failing.

•The fact that my biggest concern each morning is forcing myself awake to go to a paying job for another day.

•The memory of reading Furman Bisher’s annual Thanksgiving columns, focusing on sports and non-sports related items. He was the best at this although I have tried to imitate him through the years.

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you. As Bisher used to write, let’s meet again next year at this place.

Monticello native Chris Bridges is editor of the Barrow Journal in Winder. He welcomes feedback from readers of The Monticello News at cbridges@barrowjournal.com.