Dear Fordham,

A friend of mine told me recently that, as he gets older, he wakes up every morning surprised and delighted to get another day. I’ve been thinking about that remark ever since.

We are lucky enough to have an entire holiday centered on gratitude, a reminder that gratitude is the solution to so much of what ails us. If we do it right today, we’ll manage to avoid the heightened expectations of holidays, the internet-perfect images that never quite match our reality. We’ll cook together and burn a few things. We’ll laugh with eccentric relatives instead of letting them provoke us. We’ll collapse into deep, turkey-fueled sleep.

I hope that we can spend today remembering how lucky we are, no matter how imperfect our lives. Because most of us will have an abundance of food when so many have little. Most of us will have an abundance of people when so many are lonely.

Today, some of you will gather with friends and your chosen family. Others will mourn loved ones missing this year, savoring every memory. And some of you will go it alone, hopefully rejoicing in the peace of it all.

All my best,
Tania Tetlow
President

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