While I am thankful I get sentimental about this time each year, I can get a bit carried away. Over-embellished. Kinda like editorial cartoonists.
Actually, my sentimental mood begins about Labor Day, builds as the fields are harvested and the leaves turn colors and then disappear; it hits its peak on Thanksgiving weekend and then subsides until New Years Eve. Auld Lang Syne.
I am thankful I am thankful because we need to be. The science tells us it’s good for our souls — a sense of gratitude enriches our lives. Our Opinion Page on Wednesday was chock-full of gratitude and our readers may be tiring of that by now and are ready to move on to Christmas.
As you well know, many people had already moved on to Christmas well before this past Thursday. So I am thankful my wife respects my pet peeve about Christmas decorations and music staying in storage until after we’ve paused for this comparatively commercial-free break. Actually, I was a bit chagrinned to learn our next-door neighbor was also aware of my condition. They took advantage of the warm weather in early November to string their two blue spruces in their back yard with Christmas lights, but she called my wife to please pass along to the old grump that they would not light them until after Thanksgiving. They were concerned for my mental well being, I guess — just not sure whether that was a compliment.
Just as my duties in editing the Opinion Page involve throwing cartoons out (as referenced last week in this space), it also involves choosing which syndicated columns to publish. One was an essay asking “Are we thankful for the right things?” It was supposed to be humorous but I found it just plain dumb. It did get me to thinking, however, about whether it is theologically correct to be thankful for some of the things I am thankful for.
• Kudos to E&B Paving. When they began re-surfacing North Main Street right after the Street Fair, my main concern was whether they’d do the manholes right. Ever since the last re-surfacing, I’m guessing at least 15 years ago, we’ve had to dodge what were essentially permanent potholes, especially in the outside northbound lane.
The traffic delays have been maddening at times, but a new smoother runway with custom work around the manholes will be worth all of that. I am thankful.
• Isn’t it nice to live in a state where the votes are counted and winners are determined on Election Night? It is beyond my comprehension why it has taken so long to count votes in other places. I believe they’re still doing it in California and Alaska. I am thankful for Hoosier Sensibility.
• I am thankful no one talked me into investing in cryptocurrency. I believe it is Warren Buffet who advised people to not invest in anything they didn’t understand. For me to say I don’t understand crypto-anything is by far the biggest understatement of the year.
• I am thankful for readers who encourage me to continue doing this even when they disagree with my ramblings. There was more than one this past week who found my lack of appreciation for “embellishments” when I seem to do the same thing. At least from their perspective.
No sooner had last week’s page gone to press than I received this cartoon in my in-box. It’s my newest worst editorial cartoon:
As the news finally arrived on counting those prodigal ballots, the math added up to the Republicans gaining the majority of the House of Representatives … by a very thin margin. The main reason for which the projected “red wave” becoming a ripple is because the more right-wing candidates were rejected. The majority of Republicans in the House did not vote to reject any Electoral votes on Jan. 6; the majority does not buy into the “stolen election” script. I will also concede that they’ve not been nearly as vocal about that than those who did and do.
But this cartoonist doesn’t let those facts bother him, instead deciding to lump every one of the 220-or-so members in with the crazies at QAnon.
Embellishment?
I am thankful that this cartoonist has the right to be stupid and unfair. And it’s not like I’ve never been called either of those.
Is this a great country, or what?
miller@news-banner.com
