Giving Thanks

Ah, the traditional time for giving thanks is upon us. Truly, I do give thanks.

I'm thankful for parents who love me, gave me a secure life growing up, and pointed me toward adulthood. My childhood was so normal that I almost resent them for not giving me a convenient excuse to blame for any problems as an adult. They sent me off to the University of Michigan despite the costs. And that worked out well, in the end.

I'm thankful for 2 brothers and a sister who, though they tormented me at the usual rates when I was little, turned out to be good people as adults.

I'm thankful that my parents sent me to private school rather than the Detroit Public School system.

I'm thankful for a junior high teacher who told my parents I should go to the University of Michigan. I never contemplated going anywhere else.

I'm thankful for a police officer who looked the wrong way at the right time and another who decided I was sober enough and responsible enough to get out of Dodge with friends who were neither.

I'm thankful for realizing in college--after the University of Michigan not too subtly informed me of my errors--that I should not be a math and computer science major. Though I had no idea what I'd do with a political science degree, I'm glad I chose that path.

I'm thankful I spent three years as a sophomore.

I'm thankful that I almost accidentally double-majored in college, adding a history major to my degree.

I'm thankful my parents raised me with enough common sense not to borrow heavily to get my degree.

I'm thankful a friend in college prodded me to keep going forward when I could have just stopped. I fully intended to keep going forward, but at a point in my life when it would have been easy to coast, he made sure I did not with a simple gesture. I may not have needed that prod, but I'm thankful I didn't need to find out. I never needed another prod in life to do what I needed to do.

I'm thankful I didn't make it into graduate school in political science at the University of Michigan and that Eastern Michigan University had a history program but not a political science program.

I'm thankful I ran into my future wife and mother of my children when at a party at a girlfriend's apartment.

I'm thankful that I spent so much time playing video games at the local arcade. I got very good at Asteroids and got to know the manager a bit. Years later I eventually got a job there and worked many years; and I saw that future wife and mother there frequently, and we began dating.

I'm thankful that I joined a fraternity that attracted a lot of good guys who I still see today, and which let me slide on money I owed them during a school year until I could pay off my debt in the summer.

I'm thankful that I got a job dusting and vacuuming books in the Asia Library at the University of Michigan. Really.

I'm thankful I joined the military despite my relatively advanced age yet did not have to go off to war. I would have done so--and thought that would happen for a couple months--but I never had to leave my new wife and worry my mom who thought she'd already sent off the last son to war. Yet I know I did my duty as a citizen of a country I love and which needs to be defended. As a bonus, it added credibility to my first efforts at writing about defense issues.

I'm thankful that an instructor at a nearby community college choked on a piece of meat just before fall term started, rendering him unable to speak and giving me the opportunity to be able to add something related to my degrees to my resume.

I'm thankful for taking a mental health day off at work so I was home to receive a phone call from my future boss in Lansing where I spent the bulk of my adult career in a job I liked, with colleagues I respected and liked, was challenging, and allowed me (I think) to make a difference.

I'm thankful for two wonderful children, who give me joy every day. Despite tormenting me at the usual rates, I never forget they are good kids and that I will one day sorely miss taking care of them.

I'm thankful I raced to get something published before my first child was born. I worried I'd come to resent being a father if I did not at least prove I could do that while I still had spare time.

I'm thankful that just about every job I held--by sheer luck--except that arcade thing, contributed to my retirement plan.

I'm thankful that I pursued divorce rather than just coasting along and enduring.

I'm thankful for a comfortable and healthy life in a nice community--even if nearly every bumper sticker I see makes me roll my eyes.

I'm thankful for living in a country that gave me opportunities to go from Detroit to Ann Arbor in my life. On a map the distance is pretty small. In all other ways, they are worlds apart.

I'm thankful that every problem I have faced, no matter how bad it seemed at the time, was either something that could be fixed, coped with, or actually turned out to be a good thing in the long run when I look back at the chain of events that followed. And there was always beer in moderate amounts to fill in the difficult gaps.

I'm grateful to have a moderately successful (for my goals, anyway) blog that keeps me writing on subjects I enjoy.

I'm thankful that I've never been tormented by regrets over what I might have done or could have done. The threads of my life, good and bad, are so intertwined that I could never say that changing one bad thing to a good thing wouldn't have changed my life from a good path to a bad path.

I have much to be thankful for this day. I've been lucky in events and choices. So I give thanks. And I assume I will have many more things to add to this list before I check out of this life.

I hope you have much to be thankful for, too, this day. Happy Thanksgiving.