Happy
Thank you. A good word for this week. Richard Roeper has another word: Perspective.
Remember to put the thanks in Thanksgiving
Crowded roads, airports, bad economy can make us forget
November 26, 2008
BY RICHARD ROEPER Sun-Times Columnist
If a nationwide Jumbotron could somehow keep a tally of all the ways in which we'll invoke God's name this week, something tells me there would be a higher number in the "name in vain" category than in the "glory and praise" ledger.
You're stuck at the airport, and you damn God for the delays.
You're out of work, and you ask what in God's name you did to deserve this.
Your business is in turmoil, and you curse God for the state of the economy.
You get into a family squabble before the turkey is even out of the oven, and you say, "Jesus! Why do I come here every year?!"
And so it goes.
I saw another God reference on Tuesday as I was walking across the Dearborn Street Bridge over the Chicago River.
A homeless man. African American, around 60. Wrapped in a blanket, reading a book, the obligatory cup by his side.
And a sign that read:
GOD IS GOOD.
Nobody thinks of himself as a cliche.
It's a cliche, right? The homeless man huddled against the cold on Thanksgiving Week, giving thanks to God when it seems he has nothing for which to be thankful.
But nobody thinks of himself as a cliche. That man isn't a cliche, just as the people who stopped to drop a coin or a dollar in his cup aren't cliches.
As you rush off to do your pre-Thanksgiving errands, as you battle traffic, as you get ready for the madness at the airport -- whatever you're doing today -- I'm not going to say you don't have a right to lament some recent bit of a bad fortune. But I'll go ahead and indulge in the cliche of asking you to think about that man on the bridge, who seemingly has nothing but still wrote "GOD IS GOOD," maybe because he thinks it'll bring him more money, maybe because he believes it to be so.
Things could be worse. Chin up. Happy Thanksgiving.
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