THANKFUL ON THANKSGIVING

There's a chance we'll have a president-elect by Thanksgiving. Writing this exactly one week before, the outcome is still in doubt. However, another outcome is not in doubt, for which we can be thankful. What is not in doubt is that our system, intricate and complex as it is, works. Just as our jury system is fallible, based on the universality of human error, it is the best in the world. Just as our republic is intricately complex and consequences oftimes flawed, our system of checks and balances, separation of powers and the rule of law give us a sense of personal security and self-confidence. Despite racial tension and school shootings, our general civility, freedom of opportunity and strong economy are the envy of the world.

We can be thankful that all Americans have access to a turkey and all the trimmings. Even the poor can have it with stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. The food we throw away each day can feed a small nation. Despite areas of toxic contamination, everybody has access to palatable tap water. It is so plentiful that we can drink it, shower with it, flush with it and sprinkle our lawns with it.

Thanks to Turfbuilder, we have lawns so green that we never think there's greener grass elsewhere.

And speaking of 'elsewhere,' that hospital called St. Elsewhere, whether it is in an inner city or an affluent suburb is probably in the 99th percentile of hospitals in the world. Although old-fashioned medicine is gone, along with home visits and a bedside manner, we can be thankful for miracles of modern medicine, everything from multiple coronary bypasses, knee and hip replacements to breast augmentation, cataract surgery and hearing aids. We can be thankful for a growing number of vital, active and healthy senior citizens.

We can be thankful for psychotherapy and Prozac, to help grouches smile again and really feel happy and glad to be alive. State hospitals warehousing thousands of chronically mentally ill patients have given way to private psychiatric wards of general hospitals. We can be thankful for political action and support groups pushing for parity with physical diseases, correcting the abuses of managed care and erasing the stigma against the recognition of mental problems.

We can be thankful for national and state parks that have been kept pristine and accessible, for excellent roads and transportation to and from everywhere. We can be thankful for abundant electricity, powering our furnaces and air-conditioners, television and microwave ovens, washing machines and dishwashers, vacuum cleaners and computers, motors opening and closing our garage doors, miraculously.

And while we are at it, we can be thankful for the varied uses of small, two-cycle gas motors, powering lawn mowers, snow-blowers, leaf blowers and mulchers, not to mention chainsaws and edgers. Larger internal combustion engines power our automobiles, some of which harness over two hundred horses which bring us from point A to point B in a time which would amaze Leonardo da Vinci or Benjamin Franklin. And Leonardo would be thrilled to look out the window of a commercial jet, looking down on landscapes and cityscapes.

We can be thankful for the abundance of retirement villages and nursing homes, so that our elderly parents and grandparents do not have to be put on ice floes or sent into the forest.

Imagine! Hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing, elevators and escalators, busses and trains. Humidifiers and de-humidifiers, electronic air cleaners. We get mail, now by the ton, pretty catalogs to buy this and that.

Tunnels and suspension bridges. Stop signs and traffic lights. Seatbelts and airbags. Helmets and knee pads for skates and scooters. Bicycles, tricycles and pogo sticks.

Kites and model planes, including helicopters and rockets. Closeup shots of the moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars! Space stations and telescopes in the sky, looking at the far reaches of the universe.

Tolerance. Religious freedom, freedom of expression and the press. Safety, security, equal treatment under the law. Lawyers to sue for us, to defend us from suits, to fight for our rights and protect us from abuse.

An explosion of knowledge, the Internet, newspapers, magazines, bookstores, an endless flow and easy access to information. High and higher tech.

There's a lot wrong with the world, but we are lucky to be alive at a time like this. There's much to be thankful for, and still, always, room for improvement.