Much to be thankful for

Thanksgiving Day arrives with an obligation to be thankful for all that we have, and I can affirm that I have much to be thankful for. I am grateful for family and friends, for good health, for the quiet harmony of a long marriage, for grandchildren, for a home that truly feels like home, for adequate food to eat, for a future to look forward to.

But for the first time in nearly 30 years, I can't be thankful for work. For the second Thanksgiving since graduating from college, I find myself unemployed. In 1979, I had just resigned from editing a newspaper in Virginia. I had assigned a reporter to get the goods on a local politician who was rumored to be corrupt. He got the story. The attorneys okayed it. The publisher killed it. He and I resigned in protest. Three weeks later, it was Thanksgiving, and I had no job. Looking back, that holiday does not seem particularly eventful. We traveled for a big gathering of my wife's family. I do not recall being particularly anxious about my unemployment, although I had three small children and a wife who stayed home with them (putting three kids in day care would have been a fiscal negative). I picked up some work helping out at a couple of small newspapers who could use my services. Today, we'd call that consulting, but I never used the term. It was just a way to bring in some money until I found a permanent job.

That permanent job came as an offer to be managing editor at The Wilson Daily Times. It looked like a job I could stick with for a lifetime. It looked like a good town, a good place to raise children, as then-editor John Scott told me. So I planted roots here, expecting to retire, perhaps even do some work in retirement for the paper, take on a title of editor emeritus. And for a long time, that looked like a good plan. It was not a lack of ambition that  kept me at a small daily. I had opportunities to go elsewhere, to climb the ladder at metropolitan  dailies, but I was satisfied at the Daily Times. My wife and children were satisfied with Wilson, and so I settled in.

Being laid off from the Daily Times before the age of 60 was not part of the plan, but here I am. Just as happened 29 years ago, I don't feel particularly anxious about finances. My seven-week job search has not been fruitful, but I feel an inexplicable confidence that this situation will resolve itself, that it will all work out. "All things work for good for those who love God," I've been reminded frequently. I will continue to check job listings and pigeonhole anyone I can about a job, but on this Thanksgiving I have much to be thankful for, even if a steady job is not one of them.