In just a couple of weeks, another year of abundance will come to a close. Amid all the “sturm und drang” about valuations, trade policy, index concentration and inflation, the markets offered up another opportunity to earn healthy returns. Of course, we are grateful for this opportunity to serve our clients. We are grateful for the trust placed in us to steward these precious resources through everchanging markets and conditions.

For this letter, I thought it would be fun, if a little indulgent, to share with you some of the other things for which I am thankful this year and also during this particular time of year, which despite its frenetic pace offers an opportunity for reflection and for the awareness of the passage of time, which is, of course, by far the most precious resource.

Music

I am thankful for music, and live music in particular, and even more particular, for the opportunities to go hear the bands I have enjoyed for decades when they come home for the holidays. Seeing The Connells and Dillon Fence when they play their December shows in Raleigh is something I treasure because I always see people I have known for decades but rarely encounter. Of course, the music is great fun too. At The Connells last weekend, I enjoyed watching a whole new generation of fans (Mike Connell has college-age children) enjoy the music the same way I did starting about 40 years ago, while also seeing happy couples closer to my age dance and sway together as they have for those same decades. I like that a lot, and I’m thankful for it.

I’m also thankful that my son, an accomplished pianist, is coming home from graduate school in Boston this week and that I will be able to hear him play at home again.

Getaways with old friends

I am thankful for friends from boarding school who I see about once a year. I am thankful that one of my friends, whom I met when I was a thirteen-year-old freshman, has bought a beautiful place near Beaufort, SC, where he invites us to go hunting and fishing with him, as he did two weeks ago. Shooting, fishing and quail hunting are fun, but staying up late telling and hearing the same old stories is even more fun. I am thankful for that weekend and for those friendships.

Dinners out

I am thankful that I have a small group of friends from Raleigh who gets together every quarter to have pizza together. I am also thankful that my wife and I have developed a tradition of going out for pizza every Sunday night. We are well on our way to becoming the little old couple that sits at the same table each visit. I can see the television from my side of the booth, and I could not be happier. I am thankful for those dinners and for pretty much all opportunities to go out to dinner and sit across from friends and family. Some of my favorite moments this year occurred in restaurants (La Voile and Union Oyster House in Boston, Chive Blossom in Pawley’s Island and Singletree Heritage Kitchen in Waynesville were particularly memorable). The Mexican cantina in our neighborhood is effectively our home away from home, and I am especially grateful for that one and for the proprietor. Our household budget is the worse for these indulgences, but I am nonetheless grateful for them.

Jefferson

I am thankful for my old dog, Jefferson, who will turn 14 on New Year’s Day. We actually have no idea when his birthday is—this was just the best guess of the shelter staff in Duplin County, where we adopted him. Jefferson is a golden retriever mix, and he does not and never did hunt. His primary asset is that he has an extraordinarily beautiful coat of impossibly soft golden and white fur that is bewitching to children and adults alike. For mere possession of this God-given feature, he is acquitted of many crimes. In fact, he is not even particularly good in any objective way, except that he does seem loyal. Jefferson is basically stone deaf at this point, and he doesn’t see well. His legs are wobbly, his breath is terrible and I worry he might not be here next year, so I hug him tight every night before bed. I am especially thankful for Jefferson.

Our home

After my wife’s parents both passed away five years ago, we made the decision to move into their house, my wife’s childhood home. The house is about 90 years old and needs to be renovated. A lot of the plumbing will probably need to be replaced soon, even beyond the kitchen, which hasn’t been updated since the George H.W. Bush administration. There has been plaster hanging from the ceiling in one of the bathrooms since a tropical storm two summers ago. I sometimes joke that we live in a ruin, but the truth is, it is a beautiful old place on a wooded lot where we listen to the owls at night, and we are fortunate to live there. I am thankful for our old house, and for the old cars in the driveway, most of which are still operational.

Health

I am especially thankful for my health and for my family’s health. My wife endured a breast cancer diagnosis last spring, but we all also experienced the relief of a successful removal of the tumor (a small one) just weeks later. The radiation was not as prolonged or uncomfortable as feared. On the other hand, the long-term medication doesn’t appear to be especially pleasant from my vantage point, but talk about thankful…

Everything else

I’m grateful for the week my family gets to spend at the beach every summer with my brother’s family and my sister’s family. I’m grateful for my daughter, who is having a great sophomore year in college after an award-winning summer. I’m grateful for my seven nephews and nieces, two of whom are high school seniors and are in the middle of finding out where they are going to college next year.

I’m grateful my golf handicap isn’t any lower because I need every shot I can get. Despite technological advances, the ball just doesn’t go as far as it once did, but I am so glad I can play and have friends with whom to play.

I’m grateful for being able to work with amazing and inspiring colleagues who care about our clients and who wake up every day thinking about how to make their clients’ lives better and solve problems for them. The integrity starts at the top and runs throughout the firm.

In summary, I am grateful for the opportunity to live, work and, frankly, grow older with some extraordinarily good people.

Not so coincidentally, in Warren Buffett’s final letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders as CEO of the company he built over the last 60 years, he too cited many of the individuals who had helped to shape him along the way and contribute to his success. He also ended the letter (and his career as CEO) with a few paragraphs of the wit, wisdom and advice for which he is known. As one might expect, it’s wonderful, and we thought we’d share it to close out the year:

A Few Final Thoughts

One perhaps self-serving observation. I’m happy to say I feel better about the second half of my life than the first. My advice: Don’t beat yourself up over past mistakes — learn at least a little from them and move on. It is never too late to improve. Get the right heroes and copy them. You can start with Tom Murphy (longtime Berkshire Hathaway board member); he was the best.

Remember Alfred Nobel, later of Nobel Prize fame, who – reportedly – read his own obituary that was mistakenly printed when his brother died and a newspaper got mixed up. He was horrified at what he read and realized he should change his behavior.

Don’t count on a newsroom mix-up: Decide what you would like your obituary to say and live the life to deserve it.

Greatness does not come about through accumulating great amounts of money, great amounts of publicity or great power in government. When you help someone in any of thousands of ways, you help the world. Kindness is costless but also priceless. Whether you are religious or not, it’s hard to beat The Golden Rule as a guide to behavior.

I write this as one who has been thoughtless countless times and made many mistakes, but also became very lucky in learning from some wonderful friends how to behave better (still a long way from perfect, however). Keep in mind that the cleaning lady is as much a human being as the Chairman.

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I wish all who read this a very happy Thanksgiving. Yes, even the jerks; it’s never too late to change. Remember to thank America for maximizing your opportunities. But it is – inevitably – capricious and sometimes venal in distributing its rewards.

Choose your heroes very carefully and then emulate them. You will never be perfect, but you can always do better.