There are those holidays that are uniquely American and of them Thanksgiving may be our favorite.
It is a holiday shared by Americans of all faiths and one relatively free of commercial distraction. It is about family, gratitude and home.
It should not be a launchpad for the holidays to come but a reflection on what home means to us. It means, surely, more than bricks and mortar or the piece of ground where our house has been placed.
Yes, it is an investment – the largest many of us will ever make – but far more than that.
Our other investments, after all, are not redolent of warmth and love and that perfect smell of a favorite food cooking in the oven. To authors and screenwriters, it is that place from which we cannot be turned away or that Kansas farmstead Dorothy can’t wait to get back to.
Like us, it is never perfect when seen by outsiders but a place whose quirks and imperfections suit us.
It is a place where our views of the outside world are first formed and, at best, where we learn generosity and good citizenship and even table manners.
Home is that place where a child’s dreams begin to percolate into lives and careers that are gratifying and sustaining.
There is a reason why we respond so warmly to any advertising that shows someone in military walking slowly up a pathway toward a home. We know what it is to be welcomed back.
At Cenlar all we think about are homeowners and their homes.
It is with some pride that we can call ourselves the leading subservicer of home loans with our employees focused on managing home mortgages across the nation. But our thoughts each day are smaller.
At our best, and we work mightily to be our best, each and every one of us is tasked with thinking like a homeowner.
We have worked with homeowners through our founding companies for a century. We have worked with homeowners through some of the most volatile economic times in American history.
We work through interest rate changes, alterations in tax rates and all the myriad challenges that threaten home ownership. We know that no one benefits when anyone loses a home.
Many of us here at Cenlar are also homeowners. We know that being home for Thanksgiving is far more than eating too much or watching bad football on television.
We know what it is to be grateful – for our clients, their homeowners and our families. We know, too, that there are those less fortunate without any of the benefits we recognize at Thanksgiving.
At our best, on Thanksgiving we will be grateful not only for what we have but for what we have to share.
Giving Thanks
