To our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

• How are your finances?  Not good?  Well, most of the world is a lot poorer.  No welfare.  No food stamps.  No pensions.  No Medicare or Social Security.  In fact, one third of the people in the world go to bed hungry every night.
• How’s your health?  Not so good?  Give thanks you’ve lived this long. There are countries where the life expectancy is under 50.
• Are you in physical pain?  Millions are hurting more.  Let us visit a Veterans hospital or a hospital for children to appreciate what we have.
• When you woke up this morning, were you able to hear the birds sing, use your voice, walk to the breakfast table, read the paper?  There are a lot of people today who are deaf, unable to speak, paralyzed, unable to speak and blind.

• Are you lonely?  The way to have a friend is to be a friend.  If nobody calls, call someone.  Get out and do something nice for someone.

• Are you unhappy?  Go out of your way to smile at people you bump into during the day.  Maybe they are unhappy too and your smile will make them feel better.  It will make you feel better as well.  When someone does something nice, thank them, and say it with sincerity.

• Are you unhappy with our government?  Don’t despair.  Our system has been saved over and over again by people who worried about our nation.  And let’s remember that you can still worship at the place of your choice, cast a ballot in secret, and criticize your government.  Hundreds of millions of people live where this is not the case, where criticizing the government leads to a midnight knock on the door.
• Are you unhappy being a CAMELS-4?  Be thankful you’re not a “5.”   Are you unhappy being a “5?”  Be thankful you haven’t gotten a Prompt Corrective Action letter. If you’re a “5” and you have a PCA, well, um, good luck to you.

• We should be thankful for the food before us and remember those who go without food.  We should be thankful for the friends we have and remember those who are friendless.  We should be thankful for our health and remember those with poor health.  We should be thankful for our families, imperfect though they may be, and remember those without families.
   

Let us be thankful for what we do have, and not be unhappy with what we do not have.