A Personal Special Thanksgiving Message

 

Dear Friends,

Every year at this time, for more than a decade, I write a Thanksgiving message to my friends, colleagues, clients, and family. Many of you may recall that I have always found Thanksgiving to be my favorite holiday as it is the one of the only times that our country truly comes together as the United States of America.

Each year, we all are typically thankful for each other, our good health, and for having the freedoms we uphold by living in our great country. This year, however, is different.

We have all gone through so much in the past several months due to the COVID-19 pandemic: social isolation, sickness, the loss of loved ones, hunger, economic dislocation, mental health concerns, or a general sense of not knowing what day of the week it is.

So, some may ask what I am truly thankful for this year. Well, let me tell you.

First and foremost, I am so grateful to the doctors, nurses, and other front-line workers who risk their lives and sacrifice so much to help people they do not even know. Their true sacrifice has set a new bar for what (super)-heroism is. I am grateful to all of the volunteers who run the food banks, as well as the drivers and delivery people that keep our most vulnerable safe by bringing food and sustenance to those who are unable to do so for themselves. And, of course, I am thankful to all who protect us.

I also thank my wonderful team who understood that to survive and thrive we would need to reinvent how we approach everything. They all rose to the occasion and understood how to pivot even before the rest of the world caught up with the gravity of what we were all experiencing.

I want to thank everyone involved with our Zoom at Noon webinars, including my participants, my guests, and my colleagues who helped produce each webinar. The fact that we were able to produce the series for 30 consecutive weeks is remarkable. We will continue to provide this service on various occasions. It is my hope that, in a not-so-distant future, the series will provide an in-depth, real-time examination of what we were all were thinking during those early dark days.

I am truly thankful that during this tumultuous election we demonstrated to the world how strong and robust we are as Americans and how strong our legal institutions remain. Over 150 million people cast their ballots in the middle of a worldwide pandemic-more than in any election in U.S. history.

I am so very thankful that in 2020, of all times, our country undertook major steps to once again propel itself into space exploration through the collaboration of SpaceX and NASA.

I am also thankful and grateful for the scientists and researchers – our emissaries of hope – that are breaking new ground in the creation of a series of vaccines that could have taken over a decade to formulate. They have created a light at the end of a tunnel that for many seemed endless.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I am so immensely grateful to my family. As many of you know, we had our adult children return home from New York City to ride out the pandemic together. Little did we know how such a unique opportunity would become as, my wife and partner, Ellen would say, the gold lining to 2020. In fact, I like to say it was our platinum lining. Ellen and I were able to experience having all of our grown children for months, spending time collaboratively working during the day and working together preparing the best home cooked meals at night—  something one could only have previously imagined. Our children likened the experience to living on a Kibbutz. And to even conceive that our first grandchild would be born into our home is utter magic that words cannot begin to articulate. To have three generations living together under one roof in 2020 is something that Ellen and I will surely look back upon as perhaps one of the most memorable moments in our entire lives.

It is my hope that each of you will find peace, and reasons to be thankful for all the goodness there still is on our planet this Thanksgiving 2020.

From our family to yours,

Roy Oppenheim

From the Trenches