It’s great to have a holiday that makes no religious distinctions. All can be thankful regardless of the deity to which thanks is given. Even atheists can be thankful that happenstance has found them in a country of plenty and of freedom.

It’s great to have a holiday that reminds us that as a people we have so much more to be thankful for than to gripe about, though we often forget that.

It’s great to have a holiday that brings (forces?) families together, doesn’t require the bringing of a present, provides an excuse to eat too much, and generates memories ranging from high school football rivalry heroics to the time three people brought sweet potato casseroles.

It’s great to have a holiday for pulling communities together as food donations flow in to help make sure everyone has the opportunity for a hearty Thanksgiving Day meal. Just remember that need is there all year round.

So let’s give thanks for Thanksgiving.

It is distressing to see it impinged on (there we go, complaining again). The shopping now starts on the blessed holiday itself. Midnight madness sales were bad enough. It should have stopped there. It seems like Thanksgiving is becoming a mere speed bump in the race to Christmas or, in the secular, the “happy holidays!”

Don’t let it happen, keep the thanks in Thanksgiving Day and take a pause.

Gives thanks for families coming together with all the happiness, stress, and memories — wonderful and bittersweet — that the holiday entails.

Give thanks for living in a land of plenty, of opportunity, with the freedom to express views and pursue dreams. The United States has its problems, but none that it cannot overcome.

As always, thanks are due our military personnel who by choice, not conscription, serve and defend this country, leaving many of them far away from their homes on this holiday.

Give thanks, too, for the firefighters, police officers, hospital and convalescent care workers, and all those who will work this day to provide for our collective health and safety.

There are so many things for which to be thankful. The shopping can wait.