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.

I thought of the headline for this blog when I read a column this morning by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal.

As we head from one year to the next year, Noonan posits – and I agree — it is worthwhile to reflect on things to love about America.  Better than just to focus on the negative because, surely, there is enough of that to go around.

For me, I added, in a list below, “things to love about life with my family and friends” because that is part of what it means for me to be an American.

Noonan’s column is thought-provoking because it rests on perceptions about America from an immigrant who wanted to come to America, who came to America, and then made a life for himself and his family apart from the daily violence he faced in the Middle East.

Here is how Noonan started her column:

“Amjad Masad came to America in January 2012.  He was from Amman, Jordan, and 24.  He came because his father, a Palestinian immigrant to Jordan and a government worker, bought him a computer when he was 6.

“Amjad fell in love and discovered his true language.  He studied the history of the computer and became enamored of the U.S. and Silicon Valley.  He imagined the latter as a futuristic place with flying cars and floating buildings.  He saw the 1999 movie ‘Pirates of Silicon Valley,’ about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and decided America was the place he must be.

“His memory of arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport is a jumble, but what he saw from the bridge going into Manhattan was unforgettable—the New York skyline gleaming in the distance. It was like a spiritual experience. He was here.

“He settled in New York, worked at a startup, then moved west—he needed to be in Silicon Valley.  Five years ago, he became co-founder and CEO of Replit, a company that offers tools to learn programming. It employs 40 people full-time and 10 contractors.”

Now, my story does not reflect perceptions of being an immigrant, as important as those perceptions are.  I was born in the U.S., though, as is the case with many others, I have immigrant blood in my background, only a generation or two removed from Norway.

On Twitter, Masad came up with 10 things to love about America and I repeat them in brief below, before adding my own perceptions to the list.

“1. Work Ethic. First thing I noticed was that everyone regardless of occupation took pride in doing a bang-up job, even when no one looked.

“2. Lack of corruption. In the 10 years in the US, I’ve never been asked for a bribe, and that’s surprising.

“3. Win-win mindset. People don’t try to screw you on deals, they play the long game, and align incentives in such a way that everyone wins.

“4. Rewarding talent. From sports to engineering, America is obsessed with properly rewarding talent.

“5. Open to weirdos. Because you never know where the next tech, sports, or arts innovation will come from, America had to be open to weirdness.

“6. Forgiveness. Weird and innovative people have to put themselves out there, and as part of that, they’re going to make mistakes in public. The culture here values authenticity, and if you’re authentic and open about your failures, you’ll get a second and a third chance.

“7. Basic infrastructure. Americans take care of their public spaces.

“8. Optimism. When you step foot in the US there is a palpable sense of optimism.

“9. Freedom. Clearly a cliche, but it’s totally true.

“10. Access to capital. It’s a lot harder to innovate and try to change the world without capital.

It would be possible to argue with some items on this top-10 list.  But, remember, they are perceptions from an immigrant who has been here only for a few years.

Here is my list as, with you, I prepare to move into 2022 only a few hours from now.  So, I am thankful for:

• My family – wife Nancy, son Eric, daughter Lissy, daughter-in-law Holly, and three grandchildren…Mason, Drew and Kate.  All of them make my life better.
• My friends, many of whom play golf with me…a passion for me and, often, for them.
• My heritage in a Christian family.  I think every day of my parents and the life they built for five children, a life built on a recognition of God as creator and savior.
• My recognition of my wife’s parents who I knew before asked Nancy to marry me – and her father said yes!  Neil and Nan Fraser lived lives pleasing to God.
• My association with Salem Alliance Church for more than 30 years, which gave me a host of friends and a way to remember what God has done for me.
• The support I received from partners and associates in a lobbying and public relations firm I helped to found in 1990.  It was originally called Conkling Fiskum & McCormick, but came to be called CFM Strategic Communications and, then, CFM Advocates.  Great friends to this day, even in retirement, as we converse often about lobby work.

So, as one year passes to the next, focus on the positive things in life, for there are positives if we only take time and expend effort to think of them.

The way Peggy Noonan closed her column is the way I will close this blog:

“God bless all Americans, old and new, here by birth, belief or both, as we arrive together in an unknown place called 2022. Let’s keep our eyes fresh, shall we?”