Editorial: This Ain’t No Thank Piece

Where's an ice cream truck when you need it?

Thanksgiving is only a couple of days away and I’m sure there will be a ton of “what I’m thankful for articles” populating newspapers and the Web in the next couple of days. If memory serves me, I’ve written a few of them myself over the years, so it’s a topic that – excuse the pun – is ripe for the picking.

This year, as we move toward a holiday that I, myself, have always favored, I’m not so sure there’s as much to be cheerful about.

The big ticket items we all know about: economy, rising insurance costs, the bursting of the housing bubble, unemployment at a generational high … the list goes on and on. The smaller ones which are germane to us as individuals have just as much impact but without the nightly news headlines.

Big or small, this is a crappy time to be a working stiff.

Ten years ago, I sat a top a high-rise office building overlooking one of the busiest interstate interchanges in Atlanta. Almost everyday I’d look out my window peering down on the thousands of cars going by and have the same thought run across my brain, “look at all those ants marching”.

I was an ant. But I was like an ant on a leaf at the time. I could see the ground below – removed, somewhat, from the reality of day-to-day life – feeling good about myself. After a few months, my job got cut as part of the dot-com bust. My leaf had fallen. I was in the middle of the dirt with everyone else.

The point of the story, besides the horrible ant metaphor, is that in youth we don’t perceive economic hardship the same as we do when we get older. If DeadJournalist.com is still around in another 15 years, I’m sure I will look back fondly on the hardships that was this economic down-turn and speak warmly of the ignorance of my relative youth. That will be then. This is now.

Since entering the job market in the late-1990′s, I’ve always felt as if I had just missed the window. I was like a kid who hears the ice cream truck but couldn’t find his money in time to run out the door before the van pulled away.

When companies were giving away BMW’s to anyone you could turn on a computer, I wasn’t quite out of college. When the housing market in Atlanta began to grow at an unsustainable rate, I was starting over and without the capitol to invest in a house.

(A quick side note, am I the only one that, even when loans were being given out to anyone who could sign their name on a piece of paper, felt it was morally wrong? Not to mention illegal?)

But up until last year, I always thought each previous down-turn, or bad luck, would correct itself. I always thought my time was coming, I just needed to be patient. That economic confidence is gone. I’m not sure if, or when, it may come back.

Is it the reality of the world as we know it or is it just increased understanding and change of perspective due to age? I just don’t know.

So here I am, like many of you, just trying to hang out and hang on until things get a little better. Gone are aspirations of grandeur. Today is about holding on and trying not to fall off the wagon and into a ditch.

Maybe it is a generational thing. Maybe it’s being part of the first generation that will be worse off than their parents. Maybe it’s not having the acumen to figure out a better, and more profitable way. Maybe it’s the same unspoken frustration that millions of us having in common.

Maybe it’s just me.

There are many other people who have things much, much worse than I. This is, by no means, a pity piece despite how it may appear. But it is a piece that says, yes, I’m thankful for what I’ve got, but damn it, things could be better. A lot better.

With that in mind, an ode to the legendary Furman Bisher, who, for the first time in well over 50 years will not be writing a “What I’m Thankful For” album for the AJC this Thanksgiving. For 20 years I’d get a paper only to read his column.

What I’m Okay With, This Year

- I’m okay with the fact that this year is over, because it sure wasn’t any better than last year.

- I’m okay with fact that I haven’t had a snow day since 1993, because maybe this will be the year we’ll get five inches of snow.

- I’m okay with the SiriusXM merger, not because I want to be, but because I though I’d rather listen to fingernails on a chalkboard before listening to broadcast radio.

- I’m okay with the fact that my deejay career is over. It has been for several years, I just never wanted to admit it.

- I’m okay with shopping at a Publix that’s five miles away. I’d much rather shop at Trader Joe’s regardless of distance.

- I’m okay with Mike Woodson still being the head coach of the Hawks. (Re-sign Mario West after Jan. 18.)

- I’m trying to be okay with the reality that I talk about music more than I listen to it. Frankly, it would take a paradigm shift for that to change.

- I’m okay with just trying to make it through today. I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow.

- I’m okay with Bobby Cox announcing that 2010 will be his last as manager of the Braves. Only because I hope karma will play us a favor and bring a championship to Atlanta.

- I’m okay with sleeping. It’d be nice to rest though.

- I’m okay with the fact that I will never be a Pulitzer Prize winning writer. That doesn’t mean I will stop writing crappy pieces anytime soon.

- I’m okay with my new glasses. Even if they aren’t focused correctly, they are a lot better than the ones I’d been wearing since Saved By The Bell was still new.

- I’m okay with the fact that sometime my best attribute is just not quitting. At least not this year.

Selah