After several years of runaway growth, Tooele County's economy finally seems to be slowing down. Residential real estate, one of the chief drivers of our recent boom, is sputtering -- a problem that's exacerbated by the subprime mortgage crisis. As we reported last week, mortgage companies are hurting, and in some cases, going out of business. But there are other problems too. Newly built homes are sitting vacant without buyers and new home construction is falling off precipitously. At the same time, gas prices keep rising -- hitting Tooele County commuters particularly hard -- and consumer confidence has plummeted to a two-year low as we head into the Christmas shopping season.

How should we feel about such gloomy news right before Thanksgiving? The answer, of course, has great relevance to the holiday itself. If you realize that economies, like the seasons, change in cycles, you can't be too upset about a downturn. You also can't be too upset when you consider the situation in other parts of the nation, or the world for that matter. In Utah, jobs are plentiful, the cost of living is relatively low and the standard of living is relatively high.

Even compared to other people in Utah, Tooele County residents have much to be thankful for. As winter comes on and the skies above the Wasatch Front turn brown with smog, we should say a hallelujah each time we round the Oquirrhs and look up. We should give thanks too, for the fact that our local schools are doing their job, with a high school graduation rate in Tooele Valley that exceeds state and national averages by a fair margin. And we can feel extremely grateful for the fact that our communities remain strong, multi-generational places where children are safe to play outside and people know and care about their neighbors. Those things may seem common here, but they are rare in many large urban areas.

So take the bad news with a grain of salt. Has anyone got it better than us? Sure, but your neck can get mighty stiff from always looking up. Thanksgiving is a time to consider those less fortunate, to appreciate our own good fortune, and to realize that what we consider bad news is often very relative.