This week, there’s a theme

As the person in charge of each word that goes into this paper every other week, I can say without hesitation that I’m full of gratitude and appreciation this week for the writers who contribute to this paper. Their humor and insight and inability to stick to a low word count make me so happy.

For this issue, I asked if anyone was possibly, maybe, please, I beg of you, interested in writing about the general theme of gratitude or giving thanks, and look what I got.

Grandma’s house and a flower garden and the folks at town hall and good healthcare and family. These excellent people were grateful for all of those things, and I’m grateful for them. I’m also grateful for the awesome and enthusiastic junior reporters, who put together a whole section for this week’s paper.

A couple years ago I was talking to a photographer who was going to go out and take people’s pictures and then ask them what they were thankful for that Thanksgiving.

“Tell them to say something other than their families, though,” I said. “Everyone always says they’re thankful for their family and that doesn’t make a very fun photo essay, so ask them to forget about their families for a minute.”

Everyone said they were grateful for their families, anyway.

I am grateful for mine. I’m glad to live near my mom, and sad that this is the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing my brother and sister and their delightful children and spouses. We always spend Thanksgiving together.

Last week’s governor crackdown on gatherings hit hard. No friendsgiving, no after-dinner bonfire with the neighbors, no dessert down the street that turns into dessert and a lot of wine. That’s okay, though. We’ll be back next year and all the more grateful for it.

Thanks, Charlotters, for reading the paper, wanting to talk about it at the store, or texting me random gossip about an article I wrote, and just generally for helping out whenever we ask.