A doctor’s day is full of what has gone wrong in people’s lives, just as the news these days is filled with what has gone wrong in the world. On Thanksgiving it is important to remember that the world may look dark unless we lift the curtain and take stock of all there is to be thankful for. A few things on my list:

. That while we eat on Thanksgiving there are those in the world who are delivering food to the hungry, and that no matter how much we spent filling our tables we probably have enough left over to help fill someone else’s;

. That no matter how bad things ever get it seems unlikely the world will run out of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee;

. That in a world where misery of many causes would seem to prevail over any expression of happiness, children still find endless enjoyment with something as simple as kicking the stuffing out of a soccer ball or spinning around until they fall down dizzy. Because that is true there is always hope for the next generation;

. That you cannot be arrested for surreptitiously playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving;

. That there is an end to every day, and a new morning after even the worst of them;

. For children – the ultimate expression of irrationality and hope. Were we all logical in deciding to have them most of us would still be zygotes;

. That we have to watch children very minute. Otherwise, we would miss so much;

. That there are men and women who could look up at a tower in flames and rush past the thousands running out of it to rescue those left behind;

. That there are more men and women who want to serve as firefighters, police officers and paramedics in New York after what happened to more than 300 of their heroic comrades;

. That there are families courageous enough to let them do that;

. For nephews like my nephew Sam, who are easier than our own children to convince that we adults are cool;

. That good conversation and laughter with friends and family is a balm of life capable of healing many wounds;

. That my dogs’ mood does not depend on how the New England Patriots do. No matter what happens the dogs think life is great;

. That my dog has no idea what anthrax is, and would not care if she did unless somehow it would result in a worldwide shortage of tennis balls;

. That when the news leaves me with the need to do something good, I can – give to the United Way. Every dollar given is a small light in someone’s darkness;

. That no one can regulate how much I am going to eat on Thanksgiving;

. That we live in a country so safe that we are nationally transfixed by about 20 cases of anthrax;

. Antibiotics;

. For surgeons, who along with modern medicines and public health measures have produced the changes in health care that added 25 years to the life expectancy of modern Americans. It takes something extraordinary to be happy and confident scrounging around on the insides of another human being. My father-in-law is one, and once climbed out into the cab of a crashed truck hanging off the side of a bridge to save the life of the driver inside;

. For custard pie and the fact that no one else in my family likes it;

. That someone keeps inventing new power tools;

. That the part of a man’s brain which plans home improvement projects is wired directly to the part that plans how to get more tools;

. TV remote controls, and the fact that the remote always belongs to the dad;

. That some restless neurons drive most of us to make beautiful things, whether in our gardens, homes, or on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel;

. That five minutes looking at the world the way a child does can make it seem wondrous again, if only for those five minutes;

. For whoever figured out that mashed potatoes go great with gravy;

. For the snooze button;

. That the Pilgrim fathers did not land in Afghanistan;

. That some day nowhere in the world will women any longer be treated the way they are by the Taliban, who deserve to be bombed for that, if nothing else;

. For children we will miss more than they can imagine when they go off to college;

. For colleges our children can go off to so we parents can get on with our second childhoods

. For Thanksgiving, because it reminds us to give thanks.

Erik Steele, D.O. is a physician in Bangor, an administrator at Eastern Maine Medical Center, and is on the staff of several hospital emergency rooms in the region.