In his book “Music of Silence,” Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast writes: “Look closely and you will find that people are happy because they are grateful. The opposite of gratefulness is just taking everything for granted.”
Thanksgiving, therefore, is an opportunity, free of charge, to grab several dollops of happiness by expressing gratitude for extraordinary people who’ve made a difference in our lives.
* For example, I am grateful for former biology teacher Malcolm Walton, my friend and colleague at Chicago Vocational High School, whose laugh was so infectious that other teachers would scoot in their chairs over to his table for a shot of his magic and warmth to help us all get through the rest of the day.
Since retiring from Chicago Public Schools, the Rev. Walton is pastor of Damascus Baptist Church on the South Side, which recently took up a collection that the “Rev” sent to me in Florida to distribute to survivors of Hurricane Ian.
My prescription for anyone who has been lately despairing over the divisiveness and acrimony in our society is to spend an hour with the “Rev” for restoration of faith and optimism in humanity.
* The entire country owes thanks to 26-year-old Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, who in bold contrast to Washington’s cowardice and hypocrisy, stepped forth to courageously give congressional testimony about the former president’s leading role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. She inspired me and other Americans with a jolt of hope and pride in our younger generation, which, by the way, had the second-highest turnout for a midterm election in over three decades.
* All Chicagoans can be proud to give thanks to physicist John Goodenough, who earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and went on to win the 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry. He is credited with helping invent lithium-ion batteries that finally made electric cars practical and affordable and which will ultimately transform the auto industry while helping ensure the very survival of our planet.
* Improbably, I give thanks for Justin Bieber, who, despite the personal immaturity and drama and the trite, repetitive and cliche lyrics he writes, nonetheless produces music that makes me want to dance. Something I haven’t done since 1972.
* The nation can be grateful to Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward who, five decades after exposing President Richard Nixon’s role in the Watergate scandal with his partner Carl Bernstein, has again shown his patriotism and talent with a book and collection of recordings laying bare the lies and misinformation surrounding Donald Trump’s presidency, in part driven by the dire warning in the Post’s official slogan: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
* And I am grateful to Trump himself for his audaciousness in throwing his hat again into the presidential ring, even after suffering the loss of the popular vote in 2016; of the popular vote, electoral vote, the Senate and the House in 2020; and the losses by his endorsed celebrity candidates two weeks ago, all of which strongly indicate that with a third strike, he’ll be out in 2024, and our country’s Dark Age with its temporary suspension of truth and sanity will finally be over.
* To actor, comedian and podcaster extraordinaire Marc Maron, for keeping my blood pressure under control whenever I’m stuck in traffic, or on a lengthy road trip, with his philosophical, cultural musings in the mold of fellow philosopher-comedians George Carlin, Bill Maher and Dave Chappelle.
* Thanks goodness for Carl Nassib, a 6-foot-7, 275-pound linebacker formerly of the Las Vegas Raiders and currently with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He has, with game-changing plays like his strip sack of Baltimore Ravens superstar Lamar Jackson and his interception of Denver Broncos’ Drew Lock, done more than anyone last year to normalize LGBTQ+ existence after becoming the first openly gay pro in America’s most popular sport.
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* Although people seemed conditioned by pollsters and pundits to disapprove of our president’s senior moments, he is owed thanks and a collective sigh of relief, not just for ending a White House era of lies, insults, greed, strong-arming and upside-down foreign relations, but also for restoring the U.S. as a bastion of democracy as he has shepherded other nations in unified resistance against Moscow’s criminal despot whom Biden’s predecessor incredibly and inscrutably coddled.
* To Cormac McCarthy, at 89, America’s most gifted author, whose characters are so real and unforgettable that he doesn’t need to identify them by name in a multiperson dialogue, for publishing a new novel “The Passenger” for his millions of readers who rival Taylor Swift’s fans for their admiration, devotion and loyalty.
* Finally, to former shock jock-turned-thoughtful interviewer Howard Stern, who said on Sirius XM radio the day before the midterm elections: “I’m going to suggest to you that the things you enjoy about this country, the freedoms, they will all be gone when you elect someone who says, ‘I don’t believe the vote’ … To me, there’s no more important issue on the table for these elections than saving democracy.” With a few million listeners daily, Stern deserves the nation’s thanks for likely influencing midterm voters more than anyone else. Except perhaps Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the court’s majority opinion for the decision striking down Roe v. Wade, thus inspiring a record number of women to register to vote in order to claw back their privacy, their dignity and their rights.
David McGrath is an emeritus English professor at the College of DuPage and author of “South Siders.” His story about fishing with his father, “His Intimacies with Lake and Stream” in Notre Dame Magazine, has just been cited in “The Best American Essays 2022.” He can be reached at [email protected].
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