Happy Thanksgiving

I am going to be taking some time off next week, so I want to wish all of my readers a Happy Thanksgiving a little early. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. It caps a beautiful fall season. It is an eating holiday, so there is no muss or fuss with gifts and cards outside of the preparation of one of the best meals of the year. I’m not a turkey fan, but I love everything else that comes with the dinner package… and my wife makes the best stuffing ever.

But mostly Thanksgiving is the only time of the year, at least for me, for some quiet contemplation. We can give thanks to our God for all of the blessings of this life, and hopefully in the one to come. Thanksgiving forces us to look at the good things in our lives, centering on family, friends, health and freedom. And let’s not overlook monetary issues. Even in the hardest of times, as a country we are still better off than most of the rest of the world in our standard of living and way of life.

We face challenges. But we should be thankful while many of those challenges seem to be out of our control, most of them are absolutely in our control. In a society where values seem to be discarded like so many pieces of trash, the values that are in each of us individually are intact and sacrosanct. In a society where the value of family is diminished on a daily basis, I still see families going en masse to Sheely’s to buy mattresses, coming out of Reyer’s after buying shoes, and cramming the aisles at Kraynak’s with Grandpa and Grandma, Mom and Dad, and the kids, visiting Christmas Tree Lane and scooping up those Christmas lights and ornaments in the second week of November. It’s not what they are buying that is important, it’s the process of buying that counts. These are family events. Long after the shoes and furniture and ornaments are gone, the memory of that trip to Kraynak’s will still be there, a crazy memory that lasts forever.

This year I am particularly thankful for many things. I am thankful that the education of my son is complete, and he is fully graduated with an undergraduate degree in accounting from Youngstown State, a Masters Degree in accounting from Ohio State, and has passed all parts of the CPA exam and as of last week is a fully licensed CPA.

I am thankful that my son and I have been able to share our passion for politics, and work together on many political projects always hoping to make the Mahoning Valley a better place to live. I am so lucky we work together on so many things.

I am thankful for my wife’s success as a teacher as she approaches her 35th year teaching and retirement. She has done an outstanding job under difficult circumstances. And while doing that, has become an award winning quilter with her work garnering blue ribbons in Akron and in national shows in Columbus.

I am thankful for the health of what's left of my once large but now dimished family.  I am thankful for old friends, some of whom I have known for over 40 years, others all of my life. We have traveled through the years together.

I am thankful for all of the new friends I have made in my community work. It is a privilege for me to get know these folks and the outstanding work they do. Most of these folks are on the opposite end of the political spectrum from me, but the dialogue has been stimulating, and working together we are accomplishing good things.

And here is my guilty pleasure for which I am thankful. Most of those folks I am working with are much younger than me, and I will be eternally grateful for them helping me to think young, and helping me to view being almost 62 as a beginning rather than an end.

And finally, I am thankful for my readers. I have been at this for over five years, and my readership has grown every year. The surprise has been Youngstown Eats, which will take on a new form after the first of the year as the readership has reached a level that will allow me to move it from my blog site to its own website with new and exciting additions. I didn’t know so many people liked to eat out!!!

As for my always sparkling and insightful political commentary…I am thankful for all of the comments and for the debates. If I can open up even a small dialogue on a particular topic, then I have succeeded. It is through vigorous debate that we can solve our nation’s problems.

Happy Thanksgiving, and may God bless you and our great country.