Tuesday, November 24, 2009 9:12 PM CST
COLUMN: Holiday greeting is a reminder of reasons to be thankful still
By BILL LAIR, Managing Editor
blair@jg-tc.com
On one of those really nice days last week, I was jogging past a group home.
Because I jog reeeaalllyy slow, I chatted with one of the residents who was on the porch as I was going by. And as I passed further away he called out: “Have a happy Thanksgiving!”
I am aware of, and thankful for, many blessings in my life. But it just struck me as so special that someone at a group home would think to wish a passing stranger a happy Thanksgiving.
We say it to people all the time in the days leading up to the holiday. But this young man sounded so sincere and genuine.
So, one more thing to be thankful for: People who spread cheer to others, including strangers jogging by.
It also got me thinking of a lot of things I am thankful for, such as:
-The safe return this fall of hundreds of area National Guard soldiers. I know that not all returned safely. And I sympathize with the losses of those families. Anyone who has had a loved one serve in the military can sympathize with the families who lost someone. But I am thankful that so many completed their deployment and are now back home for this holiday season.
-The revival of the FutureGen project in Mattoon. I believe the Obama administration has put some high hurdles in the path of the FutureGen Alliance but at the end of the course is $1 billion to help launch this project that may determine the future of coal as a source of electrical power. Just the fact the project has been revived, although not a sure thing, is something to be thankful for. It is a project with worldwide implications and I have no reason to think it will be a safety hazard for Mattoon. In the midst of a couple years of economic doom-and-gloom, the revival of FutureGen has provided a dose of optimism.
- Jill Nilsen, Eastern Illinois University’s vice president for external relations, who retires next week. She has been involved in fundraising, marketing and community and government relations. She has served on the Charleston Chamber of Commerce board, and Charleston and Coles County planning committees. She also has served on the boards of Charleston Excellence in Education, the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Counseling Information System, the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center, and others. Her office also oversees EIU relations with the media. She has been a joy to know and to work with.
- Being a Cubs fan. It helps, when you have been disappointed as many times as Cubs fans have, to be able to deal with adversity so when the Bears, Bulls and Fighting Illini football team flounder year after year, it doesn’t sting as much.
- Drivers who use turn signals when they approach an intersection and drivers who don’t straddle the line in turn lanes, blocking behind them the cars that want to go straight but can’t because traffic also is in the lane to the right.
- Projects such as the EIU Renewable Energy Center, the Coles Centre hotel/convention center complex, the CVS/Midas stores, Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center expansion and the new VA clinic in Mattoon. It’s great that, even in an economic downturn, some big ideas still can be launched or come to completion.
- The election of Jim Edgar as Illinois governor in 1990. Seeing the three men who followed Edgar, it’s easy to understand why the Charleston native had the highest approval rating ever when he left office in 1999. One of the criticisms of Edgar when he was governor was that he was a “manager” rather than a “leader.” I wish we could have such a manager/leader of Illinois government today!
n Mouse traps and leaf rakes that are needed just one season a year.
- Libraries, coffee shops, ice cream sundaes and drive-through windows.
-Young people. Like my parents’ generation, I don’t always understand their music or “toys” but I believe in them. I have encountered enough young people in church and Rotary Youth Exchange, and read of the accomplishments of many high school and college youth in this newspaper, that I feel good about the future of this community, our country and the world.
- Readers of this newspaper and all of the people who deliver it to our doorsteps each morning in seven counties. I know online news is growing (see item above) but thousands in the area, like me, still love the printed page and we sincerely appreciate you and our carriers.
-Lip balm.
-Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center’s Biggest Loser program of a couple years back. I was an occasional fruit eater before entering that fitness program. Eating fruit each day became a habit and my body now “requires” oranges, strawberries, bananas, blackberries, grapes, apples, etc., regularly.
- The TV remote control. Talk about evolution of the species! I don’t know how my dad managed without it. Oh wait, we only got five channels when I was a kid.
- People who remind me in this economy that, truly, the best things in life are free. Like family. I am blessed to have a large family and this Thanksgiving I will be with many of them, including my wife. Cheryl and I will celebrate 40 years together this weekend.
So, young man, I will have a happy Thanksgiving. I hope yours is also.
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medic57 wrote on Nov 25, 2009 7:30 PM:
I'm not so sure who really are the handicapped ones in our society, we only think we teach the special people of this world, when, in reality, it is they who teach us, we just don't notice it. "