It’s Thursday, November 26, 2020. It’s Thanksgiving Day.

Although, maybe instead of Thanksgiving, this should be a Strengthgiving.

We should give strength to the people who can’t see how serious this plague is. Who complain about stay-at-home restrictions and mask mandates and bars closed at 10 p.m. That they find the strength within themselves to understand how much we need them to help combat this pandemic.

We should give strength to the people who are on the front lines of this war. The doctors, nurses, medical technicians, EMTs, support staff – risking their lives and draining themselves to the point of exhaustion. The people providing food and transportation and public safety. My former colleagues and rivals in journalism reporting this terrible story to the world.

We should try to give strength to ourselves. When we see how much others have suffered, it makes some of the things we’ve lost – the summer trip, the day at the ballpark, a night at the theater – seem small. 

But it’s OK to understand and bemoan that we’ve lost a piece of our happiness – as long as we have the strength to realize that we’ve done this and are doing this to get as many of us as we can back to those joys we miss so much.

Finally, we should give strength to our friends and family. Those who have lost jobs. Those who have been afflicted with this illness. Those – and, sadly, that includes some of you – who’ve had people taken from you way too soon by a virus that wasn’t an inkling a year ago. You are in my thoughts today and everyday.

So I wish you all strength this fourth Thursday of November. We can give thanks next year when we’re all here to share them.

Happy Strengthgiving!