How time flies! Yesterday, we bemoaned the heat; this morning, we scrape ice from the windshields. Holidays fast approach, offering the best opportunities we have to reach out to one another and try to knit-together the vicious schism in the fabric of our country.
As I move through my days here in this place that we all love so well, I’m reminded of how very fortunate I am personally thanks to so many of my amazing fellow citizens. Aside from beloved family and friends – the usual suspects – I’d like to offer thanks to some folks hereabouts that maybe haven’t been thanked enough.
First, I thank our veterans, whose service to the U.S. has been immeasurable. Thanks, too, to the good folks who provide them care and to everyone who contributes to veterans’ causes.
I want to thank our cops, fearless firefighters and emergency medical technicians. By my reckoning, they’ve got the toughest job there is, dealing with the worst kinds of problems by facing them head-on.
I’d like to thank the guys and gals who work so hard to keep our city and county infrastructure intact and our utility services humming. Teachers, nurses and doctors, thanks! Refuse and recycling collectors, postal and parcel carriers and Humane Society workers too. I offer thanks to each and every individual that labors for the collective good, whatever their native language.
Thanks to my buddies at the local hardware store, supply house, market, coffee shop, restaurant, local bookstore and mechanics. Thanks to the tradespeople, artists, poets, minstrels, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers and the volunteers who each invest so much of their own time and energy to helping worthy causes.
Take a good look around. Aren’t we lucky? Invest a smile in each and every person you encounter who helps make your life a little bit better, and that investment will be re-paid tenfold.
Help somebody over a rough patch, and your own soul’s pathway will be smoothed. We all know exactly what finish line we’re headed toward. We’ll get there better together. Thanks to you all, and have a profound Thanksgiving,
Davitt Armstrong
Durango
