I’ve never been a big one for Thanksgiving, because I always found myself giving thanks that things could have been worse for me, but I dodged the bullet. Others, of course, were not so lucky. This year, though, I’m giving thanks for another reason: Things are going to get better.
We are still in the middle of one of the worst disasters of our lifetime, the coronavirus pandemic. While I am safe at home typing this, there are thousands of overworked health care professionals trying to keep formerly healthy people alive, and there are many smaller Thanksgiving tables with empty chairs, and many of the survivors of the lost are getting their holiday meal fixings from a food bank or having it served to them at a soup kitchen.
Shocking as it may sound, I firmly believe we have the coronavirus to thank for protecting us as a country from something worse: four more years of what we are already seeing shrink in our rear-view mirrors. Many other things may have been overlooked or even forgiven by much of the electorate, but the failure of the current administration to deal effectively with the pandemic was what tipped the scale, at least in my opinion.
This is America, so we somehow manage to get the leadership and the scientific breakthroughs we need just before it all falls apart. There is no question that the storm isn’t over; the waves will be just as high when a new captain and crew take charge of the vessel. The good news is, they don’t have to learn seamanship from the ground, or in this case, the surface, up. If anyone can sail us back into the calm, they can.
As for Thanksgiving, I like what Dr. Leana Wen, a frequent TV commentator on COVID, said this week -- words to the effect of, “If you really want to celebrate Thanksgiving with your family and friends in person, do it next July, when we should all be in an entirely different place.” If she’s right, and 2021 is the year we observe TWO Thanksgivings, after what we will have been through, we may just be in the mood.
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