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Nov. 17, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: Tomorrow is a day that requires no explanation. Whether you are 6 or 60 you grasp the meaning of giving thanks to a higher power or simply for a higher thought. None of us can fully count for all our many blessings. That’s why there’s Thanksgiving. It puts them all together on an American holiday that says as much about our country as the Fourth of July. The only difference I see is we replace fireworks with prayer. That’s not a bad difference.
Nonetheless, Thanksgiving begs the question: Why us when there are those elsewhere in the world not having such a good day? Maybe it has to do with our freedoms — the opportunities to better ourselves, while still caring for others. Or maybe it is because we have become so confident that we expect all our harvests to be good ones. Too confident, you say? Not if you believe that what we try to plant everyday is but a single fruit. We call it progress.
And while tomorrow will be a day of celebration, I can’t help but think of today and 60 years ago. A young man quietly left his office early, as did most workers in town. It wasn’t because it was a Friday. It had to do with what took place elsewhere only a few hours earlier. Before putting on his coat he stopped and stared. The room was full of flowers. The White House guard was asked how they got here so quickly. He merely shrugged his shoulders. The young man went home, hugged his wife, threw his son up in the air, sat down for dinner, turned off the television and went to sleep.
We all have our good days and our bad ones. There are good harvests and there are presidential assassinations. But Nov. 23, 2023, will always follow Nov. 22, 1963. The good will always overtake the bad. That’s really why we give thanks.
Have a happy tomorrow. And everyday. DAVID REYNOLDS Rockbridge County
