Thanksgiving Day 2008. In the spirit of being grateful for one's blessings, let me share with you two vignettes of thankfulness.
The first comes from Jack Bogle's new book, Enough. This anecdote, in fact, inspired the title of the book. (See my blog post of Nov. 24 below for another reference to Jack's book.) Here goes:
"At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, "Yes, but I have something that he will never have — enough."
The second insight into "enough" has been a longtime personal favorite.
It comes from H.L. Mencken (pictured here), a newspaper and magazine editor long revered by journalists as one of the most influential writers of the early 20th century. When the "Sage of Baltimore" (as he was known, thanks to his birthplace and base of punditry) was coming to the end of his days, he recounted in his diary the many things he was grateful for. One was this: "I always had a dollar more than I needed."
On this day, and in all days to come, may you feel blessed for all that you do have.
