Turkey and dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin pie and football. Is that what it’s all about? Not the hokey-pokey, but our National Day of giving thanks for all we have and maybe more for all we don’t have.

2021 has been tough. We have experienced all types of hateful actions against each other. We have continued to struggle with a worldwide pandemic that has taken nearly 800,000 lives in the United States. We have had stabbings and shootings in Butler County. We have lost local children in fires and car accidents. We have survived the ugliness of an election process that for some reason manages to bring out the worst in candidates at times. And yet it is right and pleasing that we would give thanks.

Despite the litany of negatives that we can roll out like so many excuses, we still live in the greatest country in the world. We still have free elections and while we don’t always agree on the final result, we recognize that no other system is more balanced, more fair and better run than ours. We have become accustomed to having so much that we struggle to ever be satisfied.

It helps to view the world and Thanksgiving through a child’s eyes to help you see what you have. Giant balloons, marching bands and a short glimpse of a jolly old elf in a red suit are far more important to a 5-year-old than anything the retailers try to entice them with on the parade of parades Thanksgiving morning. Very seldom do we have to suffer through a political message from the right or the left as we follow the progress of Tom Turkey in the oven or watch the Detroit Lions lose again (they can’t play the Steelers again can they?).

Our minds will wander to the times when our local high school bands marched through the streets of New York City proudly wearing the uniforms of the schools and community they represented. Grandma and Uncle Joe will fascinate the young with stories of their youth and what they remember “when we were your age.” Yes, the parades, bands and floats always seemed bigger, didn’t they?

But all that means little if we don’t have family, if we don’t have friends and we don’t have health. Very few will care on Thursday who won or lost an election. Absolutely no one will care if all the campaigns took down their signs whether they won or lost. Will you care if there are more floats with red in them than blue? We hope not.

Be thankful for all things, for we don’t know what tomorrow may bring. What we do know is we will wake up the following day in a free country, blessed and privileged. Maybe still not satisfied or content, but still living in the greatest place on earth. God has truly blessed the U.S.A. and for that we should all give thanks.

— RV