Things to be thankful for, and it ain't the market

Though Turkey Day is on the horizon, this year hasn’t given us much to be thankful for, at least as far as the stock market goes.

With the holidays coming on, I was going to try to stay upbeat.

I wasn’t going to talk, for instance, about how once again I have cashed in all my shares and given up hope about the stock market.

I wasn’t going to talk about how the Vanguard 401(K) into which I’ve been faithfully dribbling what little cash I can each month has been cut in half in the past six months.

Nor was I going to mention that I was less than encouraged about Friday’s fat rally of nearly 500 points in the Dow, because I know that recent history says this week will be full of more ups and downs — but mostly downs — and the uptick hardly makes up for the 43 percent cliff the index has fallen over since the highs in October of last year.

I wasn’t going to talk about how all those comparisons of the current market to the Great Depression seemed so crazy six or eight months ago, but now don’t seem so far-fetched after all.

So I won’t.

Instead, I’ll spend the rest of this column talking about some of the things I am thankful for.

I am thankful for the fact that my 12-year-old son, Brady, is coming to visit me from New Jersey this Thanksgiving. He lives too far away and I don’t see him enough, so I am thankful he is coming. I plan to send him home well-fed.

I am thankful for my new little boy, Cooper, and even though he is too young yet to gobble any gobbler I’m sure he’ll get a kick out of meeting his brother for the first time.

I’m thankful for my oldest son, Justin, and even though he won’t be able to make if for the holidays, I’m thankful he’s safe and he’s thinking about the future.

I’m thankful for my terrific wife, Stacey, who puts up with my blathering about the stock market all the time.

I’m thankful for cookbooks, good wine and great Scotch — even though I’ve been drinking the discount stuff lately.

I’m thankful for the invention of the iPod.

I’m thankful for Dostoyevsky. Ditto Henry Miller, Cormac McCarthy and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I’m thankful for the Coen brothers.

I’m thankful I have a job.

I’m thankful I don’t have to stand in the unemployment line.

I’m thankful I have enough to eat.

I’m thankful I’m not an auto worker, or an employee in the financial industry, or a bank robber, or a sports commentator.

I’m thankful I live in this country, though I know it has its problems and a lot of people abroad don’t like us very much.

I’m thankful for the outcome of the election, even though I’m probably not supposed to say that because it will be interpreted that I’m biased.

Don’t worry, I’ll still criticize him if he doesn’t do a good job, and he’d better, because we need more than anything right now for a good job to be done.

That would be something we could all be thankful for.

Happy holidays.

Brian