Thankful...

I just couldn't put my finger on what I was thankful for this year, until Monday morning. I was listening to a K-State press conference on the radio on my drive back from my doctor's appointment. The press conference where my alma matter announced a new football coach to lead our stumbling program - Bill Snyder was to return and take charge.

At first, I was disappointed in the university. Surely, they could be more visionary than this, right? Were they so scared that they had to turn backwards? Reach for the only security the football program has really ever known?

Afterall, is not this the time to be craving something more hopeful, more progressive, more symbolic of change? Seems to be the message in America these days...

But as the day went on, and I mulled over this news, I began to feel thankful. Thankful to be a Kansan. Thankful to be a K-Stater. Thankful to have been a student in the stadium on the night K-State defeated Nebraska for the first time in decades.

And in a bigger sense, thankful to be associated with a university that refused to be lured by the mere propsect of hope and change, but one that had the conviction to trust in a proven man, a proven leader. For in troubled times, why gamble? Why risk so much? Fans, family traditions, positive experiences for student athletes.

We know what we're getting with Snyder - absolute dedication to the job, an ability to attract quality coaches and student athletes, a tenacios defensive effort on the field, and a few "delay of game" calls.

Don't you wish you had that same feeling of security in the bigger world these days? Don't you wish you could turn on the TV and see a national or world leader you could trust? Someone saged, tested, proven?

I am thankful, this year, to live in a place that honors and respects leadership, families, traditions, education, and Saturday afternoons in the fall at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.