2008, November 25: “Thanks a lot…”

 “THANKS A LOT…”

Waiting for what I figured was a thoughtful person who would let me cross the lane so I could make the ramp down to training, I was initially pleased that someone might actually be nice enough to let me over. Not.   My immediate response was “Thanks, a lot.“ It was obviously not the connotation my actual words denoted. There was nothing sincere about it.

Pat McMannus, author of numerous books of humor and the outdoors, has written about the best of gifts and worst of gifts and captured something that seems to bulls-eye the celebration of Thanksgiving. One can approach the holiday as either expensive or thoughtful. To paraphrase and apply his principle, the problem with thoughtful is that you must actually think about being thankful. It’s far easier to spend whatever we’re going to spend and get it over with. And, of course, both miss what it’s about and its gift to us. On the other hand you can think about it as more than simply that.

It is precisely the difference between “Thanks a lot” and “Thanks a lot!” Thanksgiving expresses what’s in us and in a sense is a real measure of our temper and who we are at the moment. We determine what it will mean this Thursday based upon what’s most important to us, our character and what the Bible calls our “heart.”

If the bottom line is “what’s in it for me” or dissatisfaction with what you don’t have that you thought you should have gotten, forget it. Just go through the motions and get it over with. Just spend whatever it costs, eat and drink and try to be merry, but don’t complain if it’s hollow. You will have managed to miss what it offered to boost both who you are and what you’re about. And you can just say, “Thanks a lot”

As officers we have a lot to grouse about – and perhaps most of it has nothing to do with what we have much power to control. Between the politics and the mopes it’s really easy to get stuck in a funk. But that’s only the case if those things are the most important things in your life. There are those elements of this profession that allow you to do what no one else gets the chance to do. There are those mundane calls that we handled well that actually made a difference in someone’s safety. There are the elements of this profession that, over the years will allow you to tally up your actions and find you have done far more for those who needed it than any other mere job. This was not just pushing paper. There is the fundamental fact that you are still a part of that necessary stable base that still believes that what‘s right is right and not at all equal to what’s bad. You’ll have those who will cover your back in ways no other profession can offer. You can have spouses and children who knew you stood for what is important and made it happen for those who couldn’t. And when it’s all said and done you will have accomplished more than a dozen political leaders. If, when you finally are finished, you do it right there will be the cream of the best who will say, as our Lord may, “well done, good and faithful servant.” If that’ not enough, you haven’t given it much thought.

Blessed Thanksgiving! But make no mistake about it. The difference between “Thanks a lot” and “Thanks a lot!” is purely a matter of your choice. It depends not, as McMannus wrote, upon how much you spent on the food but whether you gave much thought to it…to who you are… to those who make you better than you might be and about what’s really important. Choose well, stay safe and you have been prayed for.