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Show American Fork CitizenLone Peak Press - Thursday, November 25, 2004 - Page 2 o PINION jTake a stance, decide Our troops are locked in a deadly struggle for the future of Iraq, where a few extremists are attempting to compromise the options of their own countrymen. No one knows what's going to happen in Palestine now that Yasser Arafat is gone. There are civil wars, epidemics, epi-demics, natural disasters and other kinds of trouble spots all across the globe, but we don't have to look very far to see that the world is a pretty grim place sometimes. Right here in America, thousands thou-sands of people die on our highways high-ways every year. We lose far too many teens to violence and suicide. sui-cide. There are far too many marriages mar-riages ending in divorce. There are too many families without health insurance and too many children with only one parent. And that's just the beginning. However, as this traditional time of Thanksgiving rolls around, we can also see that as a nation, we still have a lot to be thankful for. We managed to hold a hotly-contested hotly-contested national election without with-out a shot being fired. In state and local areas, the peaceful transition of power is already well underway, and on the , national level, the expected postelection post-election shift in government officials offi-cials is proceeding in an orderly fashion. i Missing Thanksgiving l The Thanksgiving table at our house will look different this year ; and not just because Anita I bought some swell new decora-I decora-I tive plates, some new goblets and I a lovely gold tablecloth. J It will also look different I because of the people who won't I be there. Dad, for example. Of course, he hadn't sat at our Thanksgiving table for several years before he j died a few months ago. But there j was always a big Thanksgiving J dinner at the Alzheimer's care ; center where he lived, and we I enjoyed going there and spending the evening with him. One year he started a food fight at our t table. Trust me on this: you haven't lived until you've experi- enced a food fight at an Alzheimer's care center. Ill never j forget the mischievous smile on J his face as he loaded up his J spoon with mashed potatoes, or J the hearty laugh that escaped his t throat each time he hit his target ', (which, for some reason, was always me). It's the last time I i remember hearing him laugh like that. I'll miss that laugh this Thanksgiving and I'll miss jDad. J Mike won't be there either, nor J will little Samantha. They're both I still around, thank heavens. But J things are different now. We see him fairly regularly, and he's I always so wonderful and loving toward us. We invite him to fami-j fami-j ly activities, but with him and ; Amy divorcing . . . well, things J are different. While we'll always I be Sammie's grandparents, well ! have to do more sharing on these ! precious family holidays and I have never been very good at ; sharing. So well have to figure out this whole evolving relation-J relation-J ship thing. Last Thanksgiving J Mike was my son-in-law this ! year he's . . . well, I'm not exactly ! sure what to call him. I just know ! that I love him. And IH miss him j at our Thanksgiving table. J Joe Jr. and Jen and their two J adorable little girls won't be J there this year, either. They'll be ! spending Thanksgiving with ! Jen's family? Again, it's that shar-I shar-I ing thing Ihate it. Especially ; this year, which may be Joe and ; Jen's last. Thanksgiving here for J a long time. Joe is starting law school next fall possibly 3,000 ! miles away. Who knows when ! they'll be back for Thanksgiving? While troubling pockets of poverty and chronic underemployment underemploy-ment around the country remain, our economy is still among the world's strongest, and the opportunities oppor-tunities here, on the whole, are greater than anywhere else. We have had our share of natural natu-ral disasters this year, but the response of the American public to such events both here and abroad shows that we are still among the world's most generous people, and we are always ready to lend a hand to neighbors in need. The passage of laws defending traditional marriages in 11 states all of the ones where the issue was on the ballot shows that support for the institution is still strong, though much more must be done to save our families from crumbling. To the great surprise of many, exit polls showed that morality , outweighed all other issues in determining how Americans voted this year. There is plenty of evidence that both public and private morality could stand some improvement, but at least people still care about it. There is plenty of fodder for those who choose to despair, but there is also much to be hopeful about. We encourage everyone to focus on the positive and to consider con-sider what more they can personally person-ally do to make our world a better bet-ter place to live. Let the record show that whenever whenev-er that time comes, it's OUR turn to have them. Meanwhile, I won't wait until they go away to start missing them. Ill start missing them now. All of which could possibly make for a fairly melancholy Thanksgiving around the Walker table. But then I start thinking about who WILL be there: my very best friend in the whole world (that would be Anita), four of my five children,5whp I love more than life itself (Amy, Andrea, Elizabeth and Jon), Anita's parents (who love me even though I'm not Spanish, and I don't know a carburetor from a clutch), Anita's brother Brent (without whom our house would have collapsed and our van would have died years ago), Anita's Aunt Neala (who has the world's greatest laugh) and other much-loved friends and family members. And it occurs to me: for all of the change-ups and curve balls life throws at me, there still is much for which I can be thankful this Thanksgiving. - For the most part our family is healthy (thanks to the wonders of modern medicine), we have a roof over our heads (and 40 or 50 brand new shingles, which replaced those that were blown off in a series of wild wind storms last spring), we have food on our table (even though we weren't particularly thankful a couple of months ago when we had to empty the savings account to replace the stove on which our food is cooked) and we are surrounded sur-rounded by loved ones who care about us as much as we care about them. And that's the real main course on Thanksgiving, isn't it? Oh sure, it's about turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie and parades and football games on TV. But more than anything else, it's about family. Dear friends. Loved ones. Those with whom we share Thanksgiving and those whom we miBS. t I'm lost not This is the age of communications. communica-tions. Many have referred to the information superhighway. It is almost inconceivable that anyone should not be available to be contacted con-tacted by others. That next thing we will see will be waterproof telephones we can use in the shower. After all, we wouldn't want to be unreachable for even a few minutes, would we? I thought I had avoided all that. I'm from the generation that can still remember how excited we were ;o have a 25-foot cord on our kitchen phone so we could talk to a neighbor while washing dishes. It made a tedious chore go faster, and we didn't have to feel guilty about keeping in touch. To me a cell phone is a luxury, to be used in the event of an emergency or other time when it is important to talk with someone some-one right now. Several years ago my car broke down in the middle of the Salt Flats. A kind man stopped to render assistance. It was obvious People watching can be We usually follow BYU football on TV, but our kids got us tickets to the New Mexico game and we really enjoyed it. The day was beautiful though a little chilly. We were on the 20th row in the second tier with a good view of the action. Too bad the Y wasn't in a winning win-ning mode. During the first half I began to ' notice all the things people did rather than watch the game. A guy in back of me was holding a veritable ward council with the couple next to him. They discussed dis-cussed all the ways the youth in their ward approached each activity and what could work to get them more involved. I wanted to turn around and ask him if he had remembered the opening prayer. When the Y made a first down, which they did rather often, they would clap and yell a few encouragements then go back to their meeting. Only in Utah, I thought. The fellow next to me kept video taping the band. I finally asked him if he had a child playing. play-ing. He admitted his son was a saxophone player. "In fact, I am half-way hoping the Y won't win today so he can "Let us say grace forN being able 9 the vehicle was not going anywhere, any-where, so the loan of his cell phone was very welcome. I could communicate with my husband and discuss our options. There weren't many of them, but it was nice to have contact with a family fami-ly member in a time of crisis. What I still can't understand is people just chatting on cell phones like they were in the same room. ! Wait a minute. I may have to take that back; One time my son and his family were in the same out-of-town Wal-Mart, and we couldn't find each other except with the use of our phones. They do come in handy, even in non-crisis non-crisis events. - I have been having problems with my cell phone. It seems that , it is a common flaw in that model be home for Christmas," he said. "It will also free him up to study for his finals. If they win he will have to be in Las Vegas on the 23rd of December." Obviously he got his wish. This same guy carpeted the floor beneath him with pine nut shells. After the half someone passed around flyers for some computer store. "This means airplanes," predicted a voice above us. Sure enough soon the air was filled with a multitude of different models of paper airplanes. Most shot up and spiraled quickly back down, some made it halfway down. Once in a while one would catch the breeze and float further. fur-ther. The biggest cheer I heard all day was when a streamlined model made it all the way onto the playing field. Of course there were people going in and out all the time. The lady behind us went to check on the bargains for the last home i . to reach out for the battery to be loose. Due to that, the phone often turns off, especially at inopportune times. Friday evening I was trying to stay in touch with a friend. The phone kept turning off, and I couldn't keep it on long enough to retrieve the message she had sent. Frustration. Saturday I broke down and bought a new phone. It's cute, but not fancy. It even fits in the slot in my purse. The salesman explained it would take two to four hours to transfer my number to the new phone. I waited and waited, then tried it. Several more times, and still no service. Two days later and Fm without either phone. I'm lost. Fm frustrated. Fm unable to make several very important (although non-emergency) calls, All right, they're about Christmas shopping but they are important. I'm becoming converted, very quickly. : Now about that shower phone.... a sport, too game at the BYU Cougar Shop below us. She came back and reported she couldn't find the right size hat for her husband. Most people got goodies during half time, but a lot slipped out all during the game. One made an airplane out of a sandwich wrapper wrap-per It slogged through the air for at least three feet before succumbing suc-cumbing to its aerodynamic ineptness. I felt sorry for kicker Matt Payne as he missed three field goals which could have won the game. I wonder if the fans had been more in tune with the players, if it would have made a difference. At one point, one of the Y football players motioned for more audience cheering. He was rewarded with the foot pounding, clapping and cheering that shook the stadium. However, the momentum just didn't last. The ironic thing about me wondering why everyone wasn't concentrating on the game was I, too, found the spectators almost more interesting than the game. Perhaps attending a ball game is more than just watching the sport. It is also a social event and a time to enjoy the diversity of people there on the pretext of watching a football game. POOR C |