Editorial:

This Thanksgiving, remember how fortunate we are

Posted 11/20/18

“There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.”

The above quote is a bit of a mystery, in that it is hard to find the original author. Punch the words into a search …

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Editorial:

This Thanksgiving, remember how fortunate we are

Posted

“There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.”

The above quote is a bit of a mystery, in that it is hard to find the original author. Punch the words into a search engine, and literally thousands of iterations of it come up, though no one can seem to agree on its origins.

It’s also become something of a cottage industry, with the words adorned on everything from T-shirts, to coffee mugs, to wall hangings and screensavers. For just $12.99, the phrase can inhabit a place of honor in your cupboard, right next to the cup proclaiming you the World’s Greatest Boss.

For the cynical among us, the phrase is just a group of words, made popular each year right around the holidays and carrying about as much weight as a feather.

Yet it’s also beautiful in its simplicity, especially if we choose to adhere to it. Our blessings are all around us; we just have to acknowledge them. As cliche and trite as it might appear on its surface, the message it tries to convey is an important one.

Thursday is the annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner at the Park County Fairgrounds, an event hosted by local churches and facilitated this year by New Life Church. As always, the dinner is open to everyone, but especially those who may find themselves separated from loved ones or without another gathering to attend. On behalf of the 500 or so attendees the meal serves each year, we are thankful that we live in a community where volunteers are willing to give up a part of their Thanksgiving to ensure others don’t have to be alone on theirs. And for many of these volunteers, their service doesn’t end when the last plate is filled — groups like Powell Valley Loaves and Fishes work tirelessly year-round to serve the needs of others. Powell is a special place, filled with special people. As your local source of news, we at the Tribune are privy to that on a daily basis. And for that we are thankful.

Thanksgiving 2018 finds us a country divided in many ways and along many lines. Friends and family who once looked forward to spending the holidays together are now wary of such gatherings, lest civility be sacrificed for the expression of one’s political or societal views.

But one hopes that in the face of such uncertainty, we can still be thankful we have the opportunity to break bread with our loved ones. We can be thankful to still live in a country where our freedoms continue to be protected by our Constitution and the men and women who swear to protect it — no matter how unpopular our views or leanings may be to others. For a country with so much, it’s easy to forget and just as important to remember just how fortunate we are.

“There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.”

There really, really is.

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