A number of things behind an important Thanksgiving reminder

“The world is so full of a number of things, I think we should all be as happy as kings.”

Reading the news or following events on broadcast or social media can often seem to consign Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous line from the poem “Happy Thought” to the realm of quaint naivete. Brutality and war in foreign lands. Acrimony and scorn in politics at home. Ugly crimes and terrible natural disasters. The news could easily make misanthropes of us all.

But then, there is Thanksgiving. It is only one day, but it is also a call to remember the blessings of every day. In that spirit, it is also a day to remember that every day’s newspaper is flowered with stories that stir pride in and appreciation for the best qualities in our nature and our communities. On this day, I like to devote this column to lifting up just some of these routine examples that occurred just in the past week.

Such as Eric Peterson’s preview last Friday of GiGi Gianni’s national “Born To Be Heard” tour, which will launch Sunday at 2 p.m. at Michigan Shores Country Club in Wilmette. GiGi, who has Down syndrome and is the Chief Inspiration Officer of Hoffman Estates-based GiGi’s Playhouse Down Syndrome Achievement Centers, carries a powerful statement for anyone captive to a temptation toward negativity. “I know not everyone sees my life as valuable. But I’m here to tell the truth: My life has value and so do the lives of all people with disabilities.”

Or, David Oberhelman’s Saturday front-page centerpiece story on the “50 Years of Grace” celebration as Good Shepherd Lutheran Church parishioners in Downers Grove marked their auspicious anniversary at a service at Downers Grove Seventh-day Adventist Church, which has hosted the Lutheran congregation after a devastating fire a year and a half ago. Officials are making plans for reconstruction that will, in the words of Good Shepherd Pastor Jon Bergemann, “have better gathering spaces, group spaces to come together and build relationships with one another in the community,”

Or, Christopher Placek’s inspirational profile of 90-year-old Gene Bruckert, of Arlington Heights, who took up running when he retired from Motorola 25 years ago and now routinely runs marathons and ultramarathons — including a 24-hour endurance run this weekend in Benton, Arkansas.

Or, Russell Lissau’s description, also on Sunday, of Wheeling residents who gathered at a charitable breakfast hosted at the police station by village trustees and volunteers, collecting donations for food pantries run by Wheeling Township.

Or, numerous stories of holiday-related generosity like Steve Zalusky’s report on a gift-card promotion at Photos Hotdogs in Palatine in which $100 is automatically added to every $200 card purchased to benefit organizations serving people with special needs. And like photographer Brian Hill’s two separate Sunday stories on Lou Malnati’s employees and family members who packed more than 1,200 Thanksgiving food baskets in Buffalo Grove and on volunteers for Creekside Health Center who braved blustery winds to hand out boxes of food to families in need at the St. Mary Parish parking lot in Buffalo Grove.

Or, even stories as charming as Susan Sarkauskas’s feature Tuesday about first-graders’ creative techniques for cooking the Thanksgiving turkey or the beautifully illustrated “Word on Birds” column in Wednesday’s Neighbor highlighting the special qualities of Blue Jays by Jeff Reiter, who, by the way, has recently published a book, “The Best of Words on Birds,” available at eckhartzpress.com.

We, of course, had holiday-themed Neighbors in Need stories about good works done by various agencies and businesses in the suburbs, plus features on tree lightings, community light shows, things to do and countless other opportunities to lift up the holiday spirit. But beyond those holiday inspirations, we do well to reflect on the fact that there is more kindness, generosity and inspiration that routinely merits attention in the news than can be contained in a single Thanksgiving Day column.

And to realize that perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson had it right all along.

• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on X at @JimSlusher. His book “To Nudge The World: Conversations, community and the role of the local newspaper” is available at eckhartzpress.com.