As we celebrate Thanskgiving, let us be thankful for being alive, for having lived out through another year, and for being able to spend the holiday with family or friends close to us. And let us be thankful for our opportunities to do so, when so many of our servicemembers who are spread across the globe, arrayed against the forces of terrorism and preparing to go to war in Iraq, find themselves so far from those they care about.

I do not support what I fear will soon happen in the deserts of Arabia, but I do strongly support those who are there. Occassionally still waking in the middle of the evening to nightmares of terrorist acts, I worry that a war in Iraq will confront me with such horrible visages during the day, when to my great disconcertion, I will find I am already all too awake. But I can count on the relative safety of being in the United States to help me avoid danger; for the men and women in the military, they will have no escape to avoid the perils which Saddam Hussein or Al Qaeda may have waiting for them. Those soldiers must face such risks head on, with only the courgage of their hearts and the support of their nation to guide and protect them.

So today, give thanks for their bravery, which allows the rest of us the peace to celebrate today and the rest of the holiday season. Let us remember that first Thanksgiving; and recall that it was not an end to the difficulties for the Pilgrims and their survival in the New World -- merely a milestone, marking those challenges that they had overcome to that point. And let us pause to consider what milestone we might be at ourselves today: the challenges we have faced thus far, and those for us which are yet to come. May our Thanksgiving feast be not just a day of revelry, but a celebration of our past success, and a chance to fortify ourselves to ensure future achievement in our New World.

And speaking of such milestones, there is a strong possibility that I am crossing past one myself; with the coming of the New Year, my current intentions are to be moving from my apt.

Hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you are able to look forward to a very Merry holiday season ahead. All the best,

Matt :) 1