Thanksgiving is seen as the true start of the annual ‘Holiday season’. Certainly retailers both online and brick and mortar have been pushing the ‘buy now’ button since Halloween. As the Occupy Wall Street movement carries on into month number three, it would be easy to think that the 1% have so much to be thankful for, while the rest of us slog on in our mutual and collective despair. Well I am one of the 99%, and 2011 has been a very difficult year for me professionally, but despite that I still have much for which I can be thankful.

1) I am in good health. It is the single most important thing there can be as well as is the
overall health of the people closest to me. Remember that it could be worse folks – it could
always be worse. Being healthy (or mostly healthy) is the single most important thing isn’t
it?

2) I have people in my life that I care about and that care about me. Professional success is
uplifting but without having people around to share it with would feel hollow – agree or
disagree?

3) While the U.S. has its problems, our national spirit of innovation and can-do still make the
U.S. and its citizens a place and a people to look up to. We’re not done yet. Not by a long
shot.

4) Americans continue to use their right to complain and protest – peacefully for the most part,
that exemplifies what free speech and freedom in general are all about. This is not to be
undervalued.

5) Most Americans have flat screen TV, and iPod or digital music player and soon will also have a
smartphone. Before you laugh, keep in mind that citizens of many countries in the world cannot
say the same, but they wish they could. And in fact it’s the U.S. way of life that many people
around the world aspire to achieve.

Americans are disgruntled. Whether it is with the Wall Street folk, our political leaders, or an overall lack of good job opportunities, it seems to me that we’ve developed a culture of complaint – not complacency. As families come together this week of Thanksgiving, why don’t we think about the things for which we can be thankful instead of all the things we don’t have or wish we did?

If you can sit back after Thanksgiving dinner with a full belly and watch some meaningless football game, things could be a whole lot worse – couldn’t they?