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Ah, Thanksgiving.
The time of year that marks the official holiday season is no longer just around the corner – it’s here. The day when we pile into our SUVs with their winter coats and casserole dishes of sweet potatoes slathered with butter and brown sugar, homemade stuffing with coarsely-chopped onion and celery, pumpkin pies wrapped in aluminum foil and head out to where we fill up on food and family.
For those who have had to drive through drifts of snow or chilly rain to get to their Thanksgiving dinners, you might know the feeling of the day, leaving everything behind, stepping out of the days that get darker earlier into homes that glow from the inside longer.
On this day when we take a day off from the harsh elements of our daily lives, it’s important to think about what one is thankful for.
And if Palin’s new book, “Going Rogue,” is something you’re thankful for, stop reading this column right now.
Access
When there’s only one person who would know how to ease a restless mind or a comfort a broken heart, or get that one absurd moment of your day that you wouldn’t share with anyone else – you can Skype them from thousands of miles away.
These days we have access to everything from our best friends far away to countless resources of information from research papers to researching the procedure for an upcoming surgery. From soaking up every last detail of your favorite author’s writing process to the political opinions of countless minds.
Most importantly however, with the social media mindset – the culture that embraces interacting – through sites like Twitter and Facebook, what has been presented to us is unlimited access to the causes and the movements and the action that change our world at home and across the nation.
We have access to stories and ideas and aspects of our world we might not have known otherwise.
We have access to causes – fights against cancer, fights against hunger and poverty and domestic abuses. Fights for good will toward men, truth and purpose.
The Huffington Post recently adopted a section to their site dedicated to people making an impact for the better on our world.
It’s where someone of the Guns & Roses generation can see that Slash is doing his part to bring attention to homeless youth, find out more about programs going on from Santa Barbara to Chicago and the East Coast that are helping victims of domestic violence, poverty, hunger or children who need help overcoming rough home lives. These stories aren’t just feel good reading – they are fuel. Fuel for us to start our own movement, help our own communities, make our own differences.
Opportunity
It’s not unlike that sense of swelling pride that comes with no longer having to sit at the kids table with the little plastic cups and actually sip your water from real glass. That is the place my generation is at now. We’re the adults and though we might have a tech savvy generation behind us, Blackberrying and twittering past us at record speed – we are now those who will make the changes that matter.
We have an incredible opportunity to help those less fortunate, to contribute ideas to struggling markets in business, to begin a wave of social change.
We have an opportunity to learn from war in a way we might not have done before. To influence those younger generations who may be advanced in networking but lacking in their moral compass.
We have an opportunity to harness their attention and educate them on our mistakes or hard lessons.
Hospitality
As we escape the harsh elements of Mother Nature, moving through the space between life and work as we make our way to our respective Thanksgiving hubs, we’re welcomed by those who love us when we’re outside the office, outside the drama that can overwhelm our personal lives.
And there’s the chance to use that feeling for good as well. Because when we step back outside, make the drive home, get up in the morning for another day at work, the person you’re sitting next to, the coworker you’re talking to – might not have such comfort.
Being with our families reminds us that we can serve as a member of someone else’s every day. We can do our bit of unconditional kindness that just might make the entire difference for someone else.
These are the things I’m thankful for. Well, these and Sarah Palin jokes, of course.
Jessica Sieff is a reporter for the Niles Daily Star. Reach her at
jessica.sieff@leaderpub.com.