Thanks to you and gratitude for the values of self-determination we share in Alaska

By SUZANNE DOWNING

As we gather for Thanksgiving, whether it’s around long tables with family, around the kitchen counter with a friend or two, or even quietly by ourselves, I want to pause and say thank you. Thank you to our readers who show up every day. Thank you to our contributors who give their time and talent. Thank you to the tipsters who trust us with stories, and to the subscribers who financially support this young and growing project.

Some of you have given greatly to launch this endeavor that is to grow the conversation in Alaska. You are helping us write the next chapter of The Alaska Story. You are building something truly important with us. And we are grateful.

Thanksgiving is a moment to stop, breathe, and look at our own lives with clarity. But it’s also a moment to reject the constant drumbeat of envy that the Left works so hard to cultivate. They want Americans to look at those who are more successful, or luckier, or more financially stable, and they want us to feel resentment. They want us to believe that someone else’s life is easier, or more charmed, or somehow more deserving of government redistribution of their wealth.

But here’s what they never understand: We don’t actually want someone else’s life.

We want our own.

Most of us – rich or poor, or somewhere in between – simply want to live the life we have made with our own decisions, our own struggles, our own joys, and our own scars.

What looks fortunate from the outside almost always conceals a deeper story.

The person who seems to have everything has heartbreaks we will never see.

The person who seems wealthy may carry burdens we wouldn’t trade for any amount of money.

No one on this earth is exempt from ups and downs, trials and tragedies. None of us would willingly volunteer to live someone else’s private sorrows. We are all already busy enough navigating our own.

That alone is reason enough to be thankful.

Our paths may be messy, imperfect, or smaller than the world tells us they should be. But they are ours. And no life is unimportant – not one. We are all created by God, all given the astonishing gift of free will, all offered the chance to shape our futures through choices we make, day by day, step by step.

And that might be the greatest blessing of living in America: If we don’t like the path we’re on, we are free to choose another. We are free to begin again. We are free to reinvent, redirect, and rebuild. No one is stuck. No one is doomed. No one is sentenced to envy or bitterness unless they choose it.

So this Thanksgiving, don’t fall for the Left’s insistence that you should envy your neighbor, resent the successful, or view the blessings in someone else’s life as a reason to punish them. Reject that poison. Choose gratitude instead.

Love the life you have, even its imperfections. Be thankful for the blessings you can see, and for the ones you cannot yet see. And remember that whether you gather in a crowded house or sit quietly with your thoughts, you are never alone. God is with you. And “if He is for us, who can be against us,” as the Bible says (Romans 8:31).

From all of us at The Alaska Story: May your Thanksgiving be free of envy, full of grace, overflowing with gratitude, and rich in the love you choose to carry forward.

Have a blessed and beautiful Thanksgiving. ~ Suzanne Downing, editor