For Release November 21, 2004

For This We Give Thanks.....

AGRI-VIEWS
by Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent

I'll be the first to admit it. I'm a pretty emotional kind of guy. I tear up in the sensitive parts of movies, and I get a lump in my throat every time I hear the Star Spangled Banner. I can read in the newspaper about the groups who help the very needy family or the terminally ill child and it just about causes me to break down and cry for the good things people can do for total strangers. So I guess it should be no surprise that holidays tend to make me very introspective and reflective.

It doesn't bother me to admit that this is how I am, I'm comfortable with it and it doesn't bother me. What does cause me to stop and wonder though, is why more people aren't that way. I listen to people talk about their upcoming Thanksgiving plans. You'd think they were going to the Spanish Inquisition instead of a family gathering! This is a holiday in which we need to be giving thanks, not participating in the great American pastime known as complaining!

Is it possible that we have put too much pressure on ourselves, our children and our families? We rush here and we rush there trying to see everybody because we don't want anyone to be upset because we didn't see them. We drive too far, too fast to try to see too many people, probably because they all are expecting us to, or we think that they are expecting us to. Maybe we do it because it's tradition. Maybe we need to be thinking of smaller gatherings closer to home. We don't rush around so much on the road and lower the risk of accidents. We don't exhaust ourselves trying to fix a meal for 29 people. And then we have time to think about why we have Thanksgiving day.

We may be so busy rushing around on Thanksgiving day that we don't even take time to think about the fact that we have the vehicle, the gas, the food, the money AND the freedom of travel to do all that rushing around. We may complain about the price of gas, but we still have the funds to buy it and the store has it to sell! Some people might be happy simply to have the money to pay for the energy to keep their home warm for Thanksgiving. Most of us will probably leave enough food on our plates to feed a second person. Have you ever considered that?

Come Thanksgiving Day my wife and I will go to her brother's house. As has become recent tradition, I'll deep fry several turkeys. I do it because I want to and because I enjoy it. If it isn't too cold, several of us will be sitting around outside keeping an eye on the cooking turkey. If it is cold, I'll be outside by myself, which gives me time to think. There'll be laughter and talk and I'll make sure I consider how lucky I am and we all are. We'll think about the nephew that's serving in Iraq and we'll all say a quiet prayer to protect him and bring him home soon.

And sometime during the day, in fact maybe several times during the day, I'll find my own little quiet space to think about this past year and all that's happened that I have to be thankful for. I'll be thankful for the friends and family that I have and I'll be thankful for the memories of the friends and family who I've lost. I'll wonder about friends in Africa and how they are doing this day. But most of all, I'll be thankful for the fact that we are in a country where democracy still lives. Where we are allowed to be as happy or unhappy as we want to be, because freedom does still ring from shore to shore. And the sun will set on Thursday evening and it will have been a wonderful day in America. For all this, I give thanks.

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