Thanks.

And so we arrive at the holiday set aside to give thanks for the blessings of the previous year.

Some years are just easier than others.

So many Louisianians find themselves displaced, many permanently. Others mourn the loss of loved ones to two hurricanes which battered the state's coastline this year. No deaths were directly attributable to Rita, but as we have reported, a disproportionate number of people have died from illnesses and other factors in her wake.

For many Southwest Louisianians, life is starting to get back to normal. For others who took more severe wind and flooding damage, things are a long way from normal. Deb and I drove through Cameron Parish last weekend. Add us to the list of folks who say the pictures and television video don't do justice to the level of damage SWLA's coastal parish suffered. Here are a couple of websites which offer a vivid reminder. This shows before and after aeriel views. This one is the excellent personal blogsite of Rusty Surette, morning anchor at KBTV in Beaumont. Many of you remember Rusty from his days at KVHP here in Lake Charles.

In the end, it's up to each of us to take stock of that for which we are individually thankful. Everyone has their own way of dealing (or not) with life's challenges. How does one square natural or manmade tragedies with the concept of a benevolent universe and loving Maker?
Perhaps to the guy with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. But my own route to coming up with a workable operating system of reality has led to the most basic of a journalist's tools, the keyboard on which I am currently typing.

Each year, I sit down and hammer out what I call my "Strongly Suspect" list. I write out a list of the things I really believe. More correctly, they are things I strongly suspect. Many of them have not changed over the years, but others have. I reserve the right to change my mind on any of these in the future, so I generally avoid using the "B" word.

Why do I do this? Well, tell me what a person believes (or strongly suspects) and I'll give you a pretty accurate description of how that person acts...and reacts. No better place to start than a little self-knowledge. It's a sobering exercise to stare your beliefs in the face. It's even more sobering to be honest with yourself as to where those beliefs really came from, and how many of those have morphed over the course of your life.

One of the things I've come to most strongly suspect over my 51 or so years is that nothing...absolutely nothing...happens by accident. As I look back over the fabric of my life so far, I've come to realize that the things I thought of as the worst possible scenarios actually cleared the way for what I consider the very best parts of my life. From this perch, none of it seems to have happened purely by accident.

In fact, viewed from the perspective of the rear-view mirror, not all those things I considered "bad" weren't quite so bad, and not all the things I considered "good" were quite so good.
Now I find myself being far less judgmental as to whether things I experience are "good" or "bad." I have more of a tendency now to simply ponder how I am supposed to react to those things which I experience. By the way, I've noticed that as people age, they tend to become either more judgmental or more philosophical than they were when they were younger. I'm now mostly on the "P" side of the Myers-Briggs Personality Profile.

So I can't explain why seemingly bad things happen to good people. But I can accept the words of Shakespeare's Hamlet. "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Things happen for a reason.

I strongly suspect that each of us is dealt (at the highest levels of our being with our knowledge and complicity) challenges which are ours to handle, and for which we are equipped to respond individually and collectively in accordance with the terms of free will. Those challenges, including hurricanes Katrina and Rita, are not roadblocks on our lifepath. They are our lifepath. Our challenge, our goal, is to plan for and respond to them at the highest levels of our ability for the good of those around us.

What better opportunity to apply the Golden Rule? "Love others as you would love yourself."
So in spite of what we've all been through, I find myself saying a quiet prayer of thanks this day for the challenges now set before us. May we use them to express the greatest potential of our humanity and the enduring spiritual principles which undergird our lives.

I am thankful for my family and friends whom I love so dearly. I am deeply thankful for all the wonderful stakeholders of KPLC: our viewers, our advertisers, our employees and our community. I'm thankful for the outstanding stewardship the Liberty Corporation has shown towards KPLC and Southwest Louisiana. I am, in a word, blessed. I look forward to the future and all of the promise that it holds.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the warm thanks we at KPLC have received from thousands of you for our on-air and online coverage of Rita's approach, passage and aftermath. We've stopped counting all the phone calls, snail mail and @mails, but we haven't stopped being humbled by the faith and confidence you have bestowed upon us.

Our Internet Director Meagan Kelleher has been the official "gatherer" of many of the written responses we've received. She's compiled some (but not all) of them on a special page. As you can see, we've gotten shout-outs from all over the world.

So in addition to saying thanks, I'll also say you are very welcome. We are, as always, proud to be At Your Service.

From all of us at KPLC, we wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving.