One of the things I like best about Facebook is that, every day thus far in November, several of my friends have posted on their wall something they’re thankful for. I didn’t join in, but I did keep a gratitude list. I hereby share it with you in this newspaper where I’m grateful to be a weekly columnist.
• November 1: a faded but still lovely bouquet of zinnias
• November 2: friends who love books
• November 3: a near-miss instead of a wreck on a busy highway in Kentucky
• November 4: analog clocks
• November 5: a shed filled with firewood
• November 6: democracy, despite its flaws
• November 7: the staff at the Putnam County Election Commission
• November 8: country roads in autumn
• November 9: “The Poisonwood Bible” on audiotape
• November 10: tailgating at Tennessee Tech football games
• November 11: veterans
• November 12: rain falling soft upon my fields
• November 13: church ladies, quietly doing good
• November 14: a bald eagle perched in my walnut tree
• November 15: Jere Whitson Elementary School
• November 16: my torch-red Ford Mustang
• November 17: celebratory champagne
• November 18: the Great Smoky Mountains
• November 19: that the driver who plowed through my pasture fence and flipped her car wasn’t badly injured
• November 20: that my horses didn’t escape when the aforementioned driver knocked my fence down
• November 21: grandboy Eli’s first visit to Tennessee
• November 22: Indians and Pilgrims and turkey and pumpkin pie
• November 23: not shopping on black Friday
• November 24: college football, even without Derek Dooley
• November 25: four-day weekends
• November 26: the Cookeville Christmas parade
• November 27: the last sliver of pumpkin pie
• November 28: a full “Frost” Moon
• November 29: turkey noodle soup
• November 30: dental insurance
Most of you “no-flies-on-me” readers have no doubt figured out that, because I wrote and sent this column in several days before it appeared in today’s paper, I couldn’t have known whether there’d be any turkey or pumpkin pie left over from Thanksgiving dinner. Or if tomorrow’s Christmas parade will be postponed by bad weather. Or whether the full moon will be visible next Wednesday.
But I don’t think it’s wrong to be grateful for something wonderful that just might happen. Try it yourself. You might discover that your thankful list goes on and on.
(November 25, 2012)