Michael Jensen
Thanksgiving
By
Nov 21, 2007 - 10:57:00 AM

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. As paradoxical as this may sound, I believe that there is something ennobling about humbling oneself to acknowledge the contributions that others, including the Almighty, have made to a person’s life. Therefore, I have decided this week to express my thanks to those to whom I feel indebted.

I’m thankful for the Cleveland Indians for making sure that, once again, George Steinbrenner was unable to buy himself another World Series ring.

I’m thankful for my family.  I have a wife and six wonderful sons. To Christopher, Adam, David, Matthew, Timothy, and Aaron: thanks, guys, for making my life a daily adventure — and for giving me that touch of grey hair that makes me so distinguished looking (and by “distinguished” I of course mean, “old”).

I’m thankful for good parents. For my father, who passed away in 1990; a man whose most severe reprimand when I did something stupid was to ask, “Well, did you learn anything from it?” And for my mother, who has always been there for me and loved me, even when she thought I was being a jerk — she was usually right.

I’m thankful for my faith in God, which assures me that even though evil men may exercise their God-given free agency to hate me and even try to harm me, at the end of the day, and in spite of my imperfections, I am loved greatly by Him who is greatest.

I’m thankful for our system of government, which, though imperfect and often run by people I wouldn’t trust with the keys to my car, provides me the opportunity to live as a free man.

I’m thankful for the citizens of this country, my national family. Even though we have our differences and even though we fight and squabble like any family, we love each other, and we are even willing to give our lives for each other.

I’m thankful for my country’s president, who understands, as his father did, that sometimes even peace-loving people have to fight.

I’m thankful for my college students, who challenge me, entertain me, and occasionally try my patience, but who always keep me feeling young.

I’m thankful to the staff of the Village News, especially editor Mark Fausz who, even though he often vehemently disagrees with me and calls me bad names (like “conservative”), still publishes both my bad humor and my political pieces, providing me a forum to hone my writing skills and to prove that I am, in the end, not entirely mentally stable.

And I am thankful to you readers, who come back to my column week after week in search of the answer to that all-important question: Do they really pay him for this?

Happy Thanksgiving.


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