Thanksgiving weekend is my favorite holiday. Beyond the togetherness of family and friends, beyond the amazing homemade comfort food heaped on plates, I deeply appreciate taking a moment to contemplate our blessings and express gratitude as a community.
Like too many other families over the past two years during this pandemic, 2021 has been a hard year for my family and my business. With the loss of my brother-in-law and business partner Joe earlier this year, it would be understandable to allow grief to overtake gratitude this holiday, but to do so would be to miss an opportunity to be grateful, which could actually slow the healing process. So, instead we choose to be thankful, and when we look around, it’s not hard to find reasons.
I am grateful that families in America are together again this Thanksgiving. The COVID pandemic has been long, and far too many spent last Thanksgiving alone. Turkey and pie just don’t resonate over Zoom calls, we need physical togetherness to be whole and I am thankful that most families I talk to plan to come together this weekend.
I am grateful to live in America this Thanksgiving. Despite the frenzy the “angry channels” can whip us into, turn off the cable news and as it turns out we kind of all get along. Is America perfect? Of course not, no society is perfect. But we are a diverse, pluralistic people with beautiful cultures and divergent experiences to share with each other. No other nation on Earth can claim as much cross cultural, cross racial exchange as the U.S., and we are stronger for it. In America, we share with each other not because its politically correct to do so, but because its enjoyable and healthy. This sharing is the whole nature of the holiday, and nearly three centuries after the legend of Thanksgiving occurred, we are still grateful to come together and share experiences and bounty with each other.
I am also grateful to live in the State of Indiana. I still remember the wander lust of my youth when I would have wanted to live anywhere but here, but now as an adult I am so happy to live in a state with a functional, fiscally responsible state government and a state that managed the COVID pandemic with a measured and deliberate approach. We may not have horizons with mountains on them, or hundreds of miles of ocean coastline, or winter temperatures that rarely drop below 50 degrees, but we do have a unique type of Midwestern beauty, made only more glorious by all four seasons. I am thankful for being home in Indiana.
And I am thankful for living in a nation founded on free market principals. In America our local enterprises improve our communities by providing experiences and services to enhance our lives, our large companies provide efficiency, innovation and technology that sometimes seem beyond incredible, and both provide opportunities to all of us to earn a living in the process. Our capital markets enable anyone with the desire to do so, to take their earnings and tap into the innovation and growth of our economy to invest and create prosperity for themselves over time. No greater system of creating prosperity for so many has ever been conceived, and I am truly grateful to live in a free enterprise system.
Most of all however, I am grateful for the people in my life that make me whole. My family, my friends, my co-workers, my clients. All day every day I interact with people I call friends, and there is perhaps no greater gift to be thankful for.
I hope you had a great weekend, I hope you were together to give thanks with people you love.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Stock investing includes risks, including fluctuating prices and loss of principal. Marc Ruiz is a wealth advisor and partner with Oak Partners and registered representative of LPL Financial. Contact Marc at marc.ruiz@oakpartners.com. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC.
