Opinion: Readers, tell us what you are thankful for. It’ll make us grateful

There’s been plenty to keep us unsettled this year, which started catastrophically enough with an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. COVID-19 deaths peaked at an average of more than 4,000 a day in late January, and the celebrated June 15 reopening of our economy in California preceded another summer pandemic surge. Supply chains are fragile, the air over Los Angeles is foul, the COP26 climate summit in Scotland was arguably a failure and gas prices show no signs of falling.

But in other ways this is a year of renewed hope. Public schools in California have reopened, children as young as 5 are being vaccinated, and an entire generation of young climate activists is refusing to settle for the pledges and platitudes uttered in Scotland. (And if you care about the climate, climbing gas prices are a good thing.) People who had been shuttered inside are once again, to borrow a lyric from Paul Simon, free to resume old acquaintances and step out occasionally.

So this Thanksgiving, amid an undercurrent of uncertainty and anxiety that has persisted throughout the pandemic, there should be an abundance of reasons to express gratitude. For example, although many students in California spent all of last school year learning on Zoom (my three children did), it took the heroic effort and creativity of educators to maintain learning in what could have been a completely lost year — and for that, I am especially grateful.

With Thanksgiving approaching, we want to hear from you: For what are you thankful for this year? Amid the uncertainty, change, sickness and death (to put it bluntly), what has given you hope? Tell us in a letter to the editor, and we might publish it on Thanksgiving Day. You can use this form to send your letter, or you can write us at [email protected].

If you do that, I’ll be thankful.