Much obliged

I've been meaning to say thanks to some people. Today seems like a good day to do that.

o o o

When it snows, South Dakotans clear their own sidewalks – and then they clear their neighbors'. When traffic is backed up and a driver needs to squeeze into the adjacent lane, South Dakotans stop to let the person in. When someone needs food or a job or a place to sleep, South Dakotans give it if they can. Maybe people do this everywhere. I don't know. I haven't been everywhere. But I do know they do it here. Thanks.

o o o

It was a Thanksgiving Day tradition of ours for a long time. After dinner my dad, my brothers and I would pack the pickup and drive to Pierre to hunt geese. My sister would send a couple of her pumpkin pies with us. Eventually, when I had sons of my own, they went as well. A man could search the world and never see a better sight than his dad and his brothers and his sons peering into the dim light of dawn, the only sound their breath or the stir of an impatient dog. Or never find a better pumpkin pie. Thanks.

o o o

Her name is Ashley, and she has Down syndrome. Usually once a week she stops by my high school classroom. We'll talk for a minute or two, and then I'll ask her if she wants to say hi to the other students. She'll say yes, and then she'll walk up and down the rows of desks, shaking each student's hand. Those students and I will spend some time this year reading about and discussing human decency. But everything they and I need to know about it we could learn from Ashley. Thanks.

o o o

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 41 states currently face budget shortfalls – some into the billions of dollars. South Dakota isn't one of them. At a time when the federal government and most state governments couldn't figure out how to make change for a quarter if you spotted them a dime and two nickels, Gov. Mike Rounds has kept South Dakota out of debt. He is a tough sale. Girl Scouts who approach his door toting cookies have a better chance of selling lutefisk at a cattlemen's convention. Walk into his office and you're liable to bump into Bob Cratchit. Like the people who populate his state, however, Mike Rounds doesn't spend money he doesn't have. Thanks.

o o o

It seems lettuce is the only food I can eat without blowing up like one of those tethered balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I hate lettuce. It's like eating the mail. Tomorrow, my dinner will again be fit for a small forest animal. But nowhere in those pictures of Pilgrims and Indians on that first Thanksgiving is there a salad bowl. Thanks.

o o o

Millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan have something they once did not have: liberty. They have it because there are some people in this nation who believe so strongly in its importance they are willing to fight and to die for it – even if that means fighting and dying in places and for people far from their homes. Thanks.

o o o

One of the reporters here asked me the other day if I wanted a cinnamon toothpick, and the instant he did, a part of me was 12 again and racing across the blacktop at Longfellow Elementary School where nothing – not even cares – could catch me. The thought of cinnamon toothpicks hadn't crossed my mind in 33 years. Thanks.

o o o

Today, she'll probably be wearing her sweater that is the color of cranberries. Her face will be flushed, and her green eyes will gleam like fresh snow. A white apron will be tied at her waist. It will be her parents and my parents and our children and her nieces, and everything will be magnificent. A person could question her judgment in one glaring respect. I just keep hoping she never does. Thanks.

o o o

Recently, I went to the bookstore to get a book for a good friend of mine. I opened the door to the store, and there in front of me was the perfect book. It wasn't the book I originally had in mind, but it was exactly the book he needed to help him through his troubles, to remind him that life isn't always hard, that good days can outnumber the bad and often do. When I was younger, I would have passed this serendipity off as coincidence – assuming I recognized it at all. I know better now. The grace of God. Those four words say about all that needs to be said, I suppose. Thanks. A lot.