Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Our whole team, including our mostly removed founder / chief armchair consultant, wish you and your family and friends all the very best. I’ve learned from speaking with many of you that Thanksgiving is a personal favorite holiday, and you are looking forward to having your extended families and friends brought together. Holidays are always times of joy, but sometimes as we grow older and see more and more of them, the excitement can slowly dull due to routine. However, with the continuing state of the world as it has been these past few years, I’ve found that holidays have become much more important to me. Sometimes we need an extra push to bring the people we love most together, and holiday celebrations give us that added push. They also provide a much-needed solace for us from the worry and fear we experience day-to-day, giving us the opportunity to be rejuvenated and to continue forward in our everyday trials. Not to mention, I just really love good food.

It’s once again that time when I’m responsible for writing our monthly letter to all of you. My favorite part of doing this task is that usually Justin lets me do it from home, as it’s hard for me to write in the often loud and busy environment of our office. An added perk of this is that my cat gets to lay beside me (or occasionally across my laptop) and “help.” A distraction, but a sweet one.

This month I’m going to write about compliance again, which I know is everyone’s favorite topic. For those of you who don’t know, I originally joined up with Anderson Griggs to help out with compliance, and eventually Dad passed the title of Chief Compliance Officer on to me. This means I’m responsible for keeping track of all the new regulations we’re subject to, filing all our annual paperwork and reports, and ensuring we have policies and procedures in place for everything under the sun.

The first day of Autumn is this Saturday. Although our afternoons have been remaining stubbornly hotter than most probably want, the mornings have been refreshingly cool. I always look forward to this time of year. I enjoy the coloring of the leaves of course, but I particularly like noticing how the changing schedule of the sun affects the world, both how it looks and how people adapt their own schedules to the difference.

The summer doldrums seem to be officially upon us. I happen to enjoy the summer months. Trading slows down. Each morning the stock market “futures” are usually a very small percentage, and volatility for the most part remains muted throughout the day. Even the Wall Street kids go on vacation in the summer.

I am sick of all the fighting. The real story and subject of conversation in newsrooms, on talk shows, court T.V., and reality T.V. is the fight between the people. It doesn’t matter what is supposedly being talked about, the viewers and fans really show up for the battle and friction between people. We then all take that fight out into the world. Coworkers fight each other and upper management, politicians fight with each other and voters on both sides, and voters fight other voters on both sides as well. Parents conflict with teachers and other parents, while kids fight parents, teachers, and other kids both in-person and virtually.

Fear is the current go to subject of the day. Most of us don’t outwardly admit to one another that we are scared. However, at the end of a conversation about politics, society, schools, vacation within or without our national borders, I find it common that people will sum up with something like, “I’m scared for… the future, our children’s future, the next generation…”