WISHING YOU A THANKFUL THANKSGIVING

Many of us are feeling the lack of having our loved ones at the table with us this evening as we share a meal of Thanksgiving. I’m writing this in hopes of inspiring some to embrace the true meaning of this holiday and hold closely to your thankfulness despite the difficulties of the day.

I find myself thankful this year for many things. Obviously, I’m thankful that the long, dark times we have suffered appear to finally be turning in the direction of the light, though it will still be some time before the damage done is rectified. Perhaps we can still even save the world. Time will tell.

I’m also very thankful that my two sons are doing well in their lives. That’s probably every parent’s most dearly-held dream. One has built a growing career for himself, and the other a thriving business. Both have built families who will carry our family legacy forward so the path to the future is paved. That’s also very gratifying.

This year, as with many others before it, I am thankful for having been blessed to grow up and thrive in the resilient, nurturing, innovative, thriving community we call our “channel.” Originally, the name was conceived as a way of describing the path IT products took from manufacturer to distributor to reseller to customer, but even that has evolved. Today it denotes really the only way brands have of bringing their products and services to a larger market, stimulated by the work we do to implement those into meaningful, valuable, useful solutions.

So I celebrate the creativity, the innovativeness, the enthusiasm, and the passion of the professionals I find myself blessed to be surrounded by. So many truly remarkable souls building their own success by helping to build the success of others. How much finer could a life be than to be engaged in improving other lives and businesses? This alone means so much to be thankful for.

I am also thankful for the technologies our channel enables. In a very personal way, some of those technologies are saving my life. We unfortunately missed the childhood of one of our grandsons and would be missing the childhood of the other were it not for Facetime. It is nowhere near the same as being physically together and able to hug and squeeze him, but seeing Franklin, speaking with him, laughing with his wonderful sense of humor and basking in the joy of his love is still better over video than not to be able to do so at all. He and his parents, Josh and Michelle, are our greatest source of joy and we are indeed thankful to be able to share time with them regularly thanks to the ability to communicate through video technology.

My deepest hope is that you will not despair for the inability to be together on this holiday this year. This short-term pain should lead to long-term gain now that the biggest impediment has been removed. Let’s also get past our short-term focus on the current challenge and begin to re-commit ourselves to the longer-term catastrophe facing us. The California fires, the crazy weather here in Arizona and elsewhere, the incredible number of tropical storms and hurricanes ravaging our coasts, and more are but warnings of the dire suffering to come if we don’t work together to reverse the severe impact of human-driven climate change. We must work to convince the largest contributors to the change to reverse their wasteful ways and lead by example. The world we wish to leave our grandchildren is what’s at stake. Be thankful we still have time to change the course.

But let’s also be mindful that despite the departure of the thief-in-chief, stupid stills rages all around us. And it is stupid that can now cost us our world and the lives of our descendants. It is to all of us to stop stupid in its tracks and combat it with strong, good sense and intellect. Our world is in our hands. Let’s not blow it, and find good reason to be thankful for many, many years to come.

May you enjoy a peaceful, meaningful day of Thanksgiving.