So this is the day we’re supposed to think up things for which to give thanks. Given the gloom that shadows so much of the news, that might be harder than in other times. But it gets easier when you start thinking about it.

You start with your family and if you’re lucky, you have plenty of reasons for thanks right there. You might, for instance, have kids that make you glad for the way they turned out, working hard, being kind and doing the right thing every chance they get.

Considering the hapless people living under a bridge or in a shelter, there is much to be grateful for if you have a roof over your head, especially when you hear the rain pounding down during the night.

You might have been lucky many years ago to spend some nights on a camping trip with your sons, sleeping in a tent too short for your frame, with your toes bumping the leaking nylon skin of your shelter. Lucky? Yes, because for the next several decades, the memory makes you grateful every night for a place to sleep that is warm and dry.

Still looking for things that warrant thanks?

Here’s one: We get monthly updates from the state about the labor picture in the mid-valley. We routinely report the small fluctuations in the jobless rate. But how about this: In October, 39,380 people in Linn County were estimated to be employed, up — yes, up — 560 from the month before. In Benton County, payroll employment was estimated at 36,910, up 1,390 from the month before.

If you haven’t had the flu yet this season, especially the H1N1 version, that’s something to be grateful for. And there’s good news on that front statewide. The Oregon Health Division reports that the number of people admitted to hospitals with flu-like symptoms has dropped sharply in the last few weeks. The number reached about 275 during the week of Oct. 17. Since then it has declined every week, to about 50 the week of Nov. 14.

If this means that the worst is over, it also means that various grim predictions did not come true, and that is something Oregon can be grateful for indeed.

Lots of people took to the roads to visit relatives this week. The relatives being visited have reason to be grateful that it wasn’t they who had to spend hours on the road in the car with kids and the dog. They also have reason to be enormously grateful for receiving the visit in the first place.

And even all those families in traffic can be glad about at least one thing. A year ago last summer, the price of gas was more than $4 a gallon. This weekend in Oregon it’s a whole lot less. (hh)