Columnist Susan Snyder: Be thankful if you’ve had enough

Friday, Nov. 19, 2004 | 5:08 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

WEEKEND EDITION

November 20 - 21, 2004

Anyone with e-mail knows at least one person for whom "forward" is an involuntary response akin to breathing.

Gail, my partner's sister-in-law, isn't one of those. She's pragmatic and not prone to being sappy. She is one of the blessed few for whom less truly is more, so it seems fitting that the essay she forwarded earlier this month was about having enough.

"Enough" is something many of us don't have and even more of us wouldn't recognize if it were placed squarely in the middle of the living room and blocked our view of the plasma-screen TV bought on credit.

The spend-and-credit frenzy we nostalgically call "the holidays" has been pounding at the door since Oct. 1. We've barely eaten the Halloween candy nobody wants before we launch headlong into ceramic Santas and shopping lists.

Somewhere in there, we thaw a turkey, boil a bag of cranberries and manage to stuff in Thanksgiving.

We've been led to believe that Turkey Day is a time we give thanks for all that we have and celebrate our good fortune. We forget that the first Thanksgiving was hardly a feast, and the pilgrims were happy they'd managed to survive with barely enough.

Still, listen carefully when attending one of those feasts where everyone at the table is put on the spot to name something he or she is thankful for. (This ritual is only slightly less humiliating than being asked to say the prayer among people who remember you best for the time you ate too much pumpkin pie and threw up on Grandma's sofa.)

People rarely mention the Xbox they got last Christmas or the huge raise when their turns roll around. When it comes to saying it aloud, people typically are thankful for simply having enough.

Enough health to get out of bed independently and enjoy the sunshine another day.

Enough money to pay the bills and have some left for that fat turkey.

Enough friends or family to share a feast.

Enough time to acknowledge and enjoy those people the rest of the year.

When all eyes are upon us and that bowl of stuffing is growing cold, "enough" is the first concept that springs to mind. So it seems odd that we forget it so easily the very next day and for most of the year.

Holiday shopping stories have cluttered the lifestyle news wires for weeks, with most revolving around finding gifts for people who already have everything. It seems that population is growing, but we are compelled to buy stuff for them anyway.

However, tucked among the shopping tips was a tale about recent college graduates who freak when they find out how much life actually costs. One young woman was aghast that her $20,000-a-year starting salary wasn't going to cover rent in a posh apartment and the $530-a-month payment on her Ford Explorer.

The hip term is "quarter-life crisis." But the phenomenon isn't all that complicated. We simply have raised a generation to whom "need" and "want" are synonymous and "enough" isn't attainable.

We berate them for not taking adult responsibility, while they live miserably at home at 25.

They aren't whiners. They're unprepared. They are the fruits of a society that has lost sight of enough.

If you have it, be thankful. Enough is hard to come by, these days.