Week of Thanksgiving

In my ongoing search for a little good news in 2020, I asked my friend Sam Whitson, State Representative and Retired U.S. Army Colonel if there was a silver lining in 2020 for him. His story is below. I don’t say it often enough, thank you to all who serve our country!

Power of Kindness, trust, compassion….

“Thirty years-ago this week, November 1990 while stationed in Germany, I was preparing to deploy to combat operations in the Persian Gulf.  The air movement order could come at any time to depart to the uncertainties we would face: such as how long would we be gone, when would the war start, how many casualties we would suffer, would the enemy employ chemical and biological weapons, and how would our families manage back in a foreign country while we were gone.  

But the uncertainty of any future with my family the week of Thanksgiving thirty years ago, the experience of war and the joy of returning home, simply reinforced my belief in the power of kindness, trust, compassion and recognizing what’s really important in one’s life. As we approach the holiday season, I think most people are searching for something to be thankful for after a turbulent and confused 2020.  I wish I could say the year 2020 was something I could tell my grandchildren about, but my grandchildren are living it.  And that is an experience early in life for them that I never had to endure until I was much older.  If it ever had to happen to them, I’m actually thankful they had the experience of living through the uncertainty of this year at an early age.   I hope the year 2020 is an experience that will instill in them a lesson that shows the strength of kindness, trust, compassion and recognizing what’s really important in one’s life.

We need to move forward to 2021 with a commitment to learn from the experiences and the challenges of the past year and make America stronger and better for our grandchildren, so one day, they can tell their grandchildren “this is nothing, you should have lived through 2020.”