Plenty to be grateful for every year

How can Thanksgiving Day be here again? Has it really been a year?

Yes, it has, and this means it’s time again to remind myself of the things I’m grateful for on this Gratitude Day.

You’d probably expect me to say I’m grateful for the scattered bits and pieces of liberty left in America; those fragments that haven’t yet been regulated out of existence, and I am.

I’m also grateful for my family, especially because in the past year my son has moved within visiting distance.

I’m grateful to have the chance to share my thoughts here, and this means I’m grateful for The Eastern New Mexico News and also for the subscribers and advertisers who keep this newspaper going, and I’m grateful for all my readers.

I’m grateful for the smiles and hellos from strangers I pass. It’s nice that strangers can be potential friends instead of seeming like automatic dangers.

I’m grateful for the local businesses that are happy for my trade, however little I might spend. I appreciate those who make it their mission to meet needs and serve their customers. They are true heroes.

I’m grateful for modern conveniences. As much as I enjoy practicing primitive wilderness survival skills, I am grateful to have a solid house to shelter me. I may feel guilty when I use a butane lighter rather than a more primitive method to start the fire in my fireplace, but I’m grateful to have the option. I’m also grateful I can have heat without lighting a fire, and that I can have air conditioning in hot weather. You don’t realize how nice those things are unless you’ve done without.

I know how good I have it compared to most humans throughout history and over most of the world. Medicine, sanitation, clean water, civility, and many other things society has provided, in spite of the parasitism of the political element all around us. I’ll even ignore that this political element wants me to confuse it with the society that provides the good stuff. Let it have its delusions. I’m grateful I don’t fall for the trick.

There are things I’m grateful for that can’t be put into words; things I feel but can’t properly describe.

Last but not least, I am also grateful to know things can always be even better. None of us has arrived. Each individual can be better, and one person at a time, society gets better.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Farwell’s Kent McManigal champions liberty. Contact him at:

[email protected]