Giving thanks for Thanksgiving

The Opinion page this year has consisted of more whining and complaining than a summer road trip with four kids. I willingly admit that I have contributed to this negativity, ranting about trivial inconveniences like inaccurate sprinklers and the overabundance of squirrels on campus. While there is a legitimate place for critical opinion in a free society, there is also a need for discussion about what is being done well. So, in honor of the next week's great holiday, I decided to go rogue like Sarah Palin and write a positive opinion piece.

This is what I am grateful for:

For a quality education:

When else in your life will you spend four years surrounded by professors who are sharper than Wolverine's hands and students who, although they may not admit it, are for the most part interested in learning? At Gonzaga we have teachers who dedicate their lives to enlightening us, who correct our hastily-written papers and who put up with our sleeping in class, all for salaries that are far less than their gargantuan brains deserve. I'm thankful for the gift of knowledge.

For food:

Next week, our fine country will celebrate the European colonists' relationship with the Native Americans by eating mass quantities of food. I am thankful for the stuffing, apple pie, cranberry sauce and all of the farmers, underpaid illegal immigrants, truckers and manufacturers who got them to your plate.

For blue-collar workers who do their jobs with a smile:

I am grateful for people who have a positive attitude even while doing the work that no one else wants to do. For the janitors who have to deal with the natural disaster that is DeSmet on a Sunday morning, and the dishwashers that deal with the mess on the other side of the COG's magical dish conveyor belt. And, of course, for people like Peachy Kay, who holds a less than glamorous job but does it in a way that makes her legendary on campus.

For sports:

Despite corruption in the NCAA, pointless radio talk shows, the overpaid athletes, sports at their core are pure and beautiful. There are few things that can unite a group of random people like a competitive college football game.

For technology:

Clean water. Medical advancements. The Shake Weight. Human innovation is more amazing than the Aurora Borealis. A Nov. 13 article in The New York Times reported that in a top secret lab called "Google X," top scientists are experimenting with various inventions, including a refrigerator that connects to the Internet and orders groceries when it runs out and a dinner plate programmed to display what you are eating on a social networking site.

For people:

Most importantly, I am thankful for family and friends. In an Oct. 27 op-ed piece in The New York Times entitled "The Life Report," columnist David Brooks reviewed the short autobiographies written by the Yale class of 1942 at their 50th reunion. Although most of the Yale grads held prestigious and important jobs, Brooks noted that, "For almost all, family and friends mattered most," an opinion that is as true as it is cliché. In "Nicomachean Ethics" Aristotle states, "Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods." In a lecture last week, Dr. Kent Hoffman of the psychology department argued that at our core, people's greatest desire is to be loved by other people. So be thankful for the people who love you and whom you love.

Thank your friends and family, if not verbally then with actions. Be grateful, Zags.