Take the Thanksgiving challenge and be grateful

I have two big challenges for you this Thanksgiving weekend.  I have to say, I’ve always loved Thanksgiving, even when I was a little kid. We would always go up to my aunt’s in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. And she and her husband Red, Uncle Red as we call him, would host the whole family. They’d always have huge turkeys. They’d have pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, all the goodies that you liked. They had, of course, stuffed the turkey. So you had stuffing and gravy. And I frankly found Thanksgiving really exciting. Now I will confess, I always tried to get a turkey leg. And usually, my relatives spoiled me. And so I got to wander off and have a giant turkey leg. You know, when you’re really small, the turkey legs look really, really big. They don’t look quite as big to me now because I’m a little bigger than I used to be. But when I was like six or seven years old, that was pretty cool to have a turkey leg. 

So as you enter Thanksgiving week, I want to give you just two ideas that I think you’ll kind of find interesting. First, stop for a minute, and take stock of everything you have a good reason to be thankful for. Whether it’s health, friendship, having a job, all the different things that have happened in your field in the last year that are good, that are positive, recognizing that sometimes just having a positive attitude makes life better. And I’ll tell you, 

I think there are a lot of studies that people with positive attitudes, people who are optimistic, people who laugh, actually have healthier bodies that somehow generate the right kind of endorphins, and the right kind of chemicals to fight off disease. So they’re actually healthier, not just, they don’t just feel healthier, they are healthier. 

So take a couple of minutes this Thanksgiving week, to just relax and say to yourself, alright, I got lots of things I can complain about. And trust me, I have lots of things I could complain about too. But what do I have to be thankful for? Starting with the folks you might be with Thanksgiving Day. 

And that’s my second challenge. See if you could go through an entire day, all day on Thanksgiving Day, and not discuss one item politics. 

Don’t get involved in arguments for or against Trump for or against Biden, who knows what. Just say this is going to be a politics-free Thanksgiving. And frankly, if you can get through a whole day without arguing politics, it will be a day of Thanksgiving, and you will feel a lot better. 

And then, you know, maybe you can get that turkey leg for yourself or that piece of pumpkin pie. So I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

And you remember what a great and amazing country we’re all able to live in and why we have so much to give thanks for.