Thanksgiving 2021

As someone who likes to think of himself as being slightly ahead of his time, in this case, admittedly, cutting it a little finer than usual, let me be among the first (few hundred thousand/million) to welcome all of us to the threshold of the holiday season which more or less begins with Thanksgiving tomorrow (followed on Monday by the first first day of Hannukah) with Christmas cheer for all, ready or not, closely on its heels. 

Maybe just me, or perhaps because of yet another more shadows-than-light year that's nearing its end, it might feel a little out of place and presumptuous to extend good wishes to you and yours from me and mine as the holiday season, such as it is, begins in earnest. But as my mom used to say (and yours, too, I bet), gratitude is what makes what we have all that we need. So here we are

It's easy to lose sight of our blessings and the gratitude we should have for them as social and work obligations and community events collide, collude, and accelerate as they approach even as the still-fall days darken earlier and the temperatures drop (and our reasons to be cheerful seem to grow fewer and farther in between) and the race to the start of winter nears its conclusion.

Instead of enjoying a moment to appreciate the gifts of hearth and home that we have, we sometimes look to the lives of the famous and fortunate and yearn for that which we don't have. The ringing of the kettle collection bell one of the ways that I know the holiday season (however you define it) has arrived, doesn't cause us to count our change along with our blessings so much as to worry about for whom the bell tolls and when it might be ringing for us. And in truth, we should be cautious, but not fearful.

We have much to be thankful for as a city. We have hundreds of volunteers and neighbors involved in nearly every aspect of any activity throughout our community, each with a passion or a project that not only brightens their lives but ours as well. 

We have professional emergency medical services and own and operate our own public utility. We have teachers and schools the envy of cities ten times our size, a community college that calls Norwich home, a spectacular public park and a location between Boston and New York, straddling two popular casinos in the middle of Mystic Coast and Country here in the Northeast Corridor like few other places.

We're not yet a city that's turned the corner, but we're getting there with every new participant in a neighborhood watch, every new small business that opens, and every time someone new moves into one of our neighborhoods. Norwich in years past waited for the world-now we are preparing to meet the world, to be more active and engaged with it and one another than we have in decades. Yeah, I know I keep saying that but I'm gonna keep saying that until it comes true, so you may as well join me.

There are challenges ahead and not the easiest of times awaiting us. But we should be thankful we have one another and are developing the confidence to live out loud. Don't mourn what we've missed, celebrate what's yet to be. To those to whom much is given, much is expected and we should expect much more from our city and from ourselves, not just this Thanksgiving holiday but every day.
-bill kenny