PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

But to call Thanksgiving a “holiday” is to limit its meaning.

What the day is:  Most of all, a day to remember and give thanks, especially to God, who has enabled us to live for another year with friends and family.

And, it is not an exaggeration to suggest that every day should be a day of thanks, just as today is, three days after Thanksgiving.

Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan performed her annual ritual again this year when she wrote e-mails to a number of people and asked them to report back to her about why they were thankful, even in the midst of what she called “a hard year.”

Here are the firsts paragraphs of what she wrote:

“It’s been a fairly gruesome year—pandemic, lockdowns, economic woe, death and illness. We’ve done a column in past years asking friends and acquaintances what they’re thankful for.  This year we emailed a dozen people whom we respect and who know a lot, asking what they’d seen, experienced or realized this annus horribilis that left them moved or grateful. 

“It could be personal or galactic in scope, concrete or abstract, but not political, and it had to be particular to this year.

“An investor who feared he wouldn’t see much of his grown kids since they’d flown the coop is awed to be living with them in crowded, happy circumstances.  A priest is grateful young people are still coming into the church.  A former pollster can’t believe how Zoom kept her far-flung family together.

“There was a lot of surprised gratitude for technology. A subtext emerged, unexpected gifts of the pandemic.  Most of all and strikingly there was deep gratitude for the people who work on the ground in America, who kept the country functioning.  Almost everyone mentioned personal thanks for grocery-store workers and truckers.  For eight months we’ve read and heard stories of self-sacrifice and dedication.  They have sunk in.  I believe the pandemic inched forward a certain cultural shift, a broadened sense of who deserves honor.”

Noonan’s point is that the goal is to get your eyes off yourself and look to the good deeds of other who, even if they don’t know you personally, have made your life better in the last year.

So, in that spirit, here is my list of some of the reasons why I am thankful.

• The heritage of my parents.  I think of them literally every day and am grateful for solid start they gave to me and my four siblings.
• My wife who agreed to marry me 47 years ago, the best decision of my life.
• My kids – Eric and Lissy – and way they allowed me to be both father and friend.
• My grandkids – Mason, Drew and Kate – who are growing up too quickly for words.  I treasure all of my days with them.
• My dogs – Hogan (now looking at me from up in heaven) and Callaway – who love me even if I shoot bad scores on the golf course.
• Friends who have supported me through the years, including those on the golf course who have became great friends.
• Colleagues in a business I helped to found – CFM Advocates – which represented a host of solid public policy clients over, for me, more than 25 years.  With me in retirement, CFM is still active today.
• Churches I have attended – the one in Portland where I grew up, the one in Washington, D.C. where, as a family, we spent a couple years, and the one in Salem, Oregon, which we helped to lead for a number of years.  But, remember, “church” is more than just buildings; it is a place to gather as “children of God” and express gratitude for the relationship we have in Christ.

In this context, the words of a great hymn come to mind:  Christ has provided “a bridge across the great divide,” or, if you like, “a cross to bridge the great divide.”

Have a great Thanksgiving – every day.