AS DEPRESSING as the economy of Antioch, Contra Costa County, California and the United States may be, it has provided us the opportunity to consider what is really important in life.

I've noticed that we have discovered board games that haven't been touched for years! In fact, a lot of dust had to be removed. Games like Monopoly, Sorry, Risk and Yahtzee are being brought back to life, and families are even sitting around the table at the same time and actually talking to one another!

I'm seeing more young families out in our local parks and playgrounds. Ad hoc softball games are even being seen (is it almost baseball season?).

I even saw a family out playing badminton, but without the net set up. There have even been a few Frisbees that the dogs haven't chewed up yet being flung around backyards.

Rumor has it that families have cut back on the cable and satellite packages for those premium channels and classic shows like "Leave it to Beaver" are being watched again.

Yes, we still have people with those Bluetooth devices in their ears and our youth texting each other. But as those costs go up, maybe they'll rediscover what it is like to actually hold a conversation face-to-face with someone again! You can't pick up body language via texting or e-mail.

I have noticed more adults playing the Facebook games like Mob Wars, Vikings, Pirates, Mafia Wars, and those silly cyberspace farming games.

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It seems like some of us have a little more time on our hands than we did not that long ago.

I noticed a poll on the Internet last week, and it turned out that the most popular holiday of the year was Thanksgiving! Maybe it is the smell of the turkey cooking or simply the fact that it is the one holiday where extended families actually come together, and everyone sits down at the table at the same time like a Norman Rockwell painting of Americana.

The weak economy has also given us the opportunity to reinvent government, particularly at the state, county and city level. As revenues (taxes) have decreased, local government has had to reexamine what its primary role actually is.

I was pleasantly surprised when I attended the Contra Costa Industrial Association's annual luncheon with the Board of Supervisors to hear the supervisors say that they needed to reinvent themselves and go back to what their basic functions should be.

Wow! Could it be that all the "nice to have" programs when they were flush with money are going to go away so that they can provide the basic service of public safety?

On the local level, it also gives city governments a chance to reinvent themselves. Perhaps it is time to put the Internet to greater use thereby saving a few trees in the process. I still don't know why we can't get our water bills from the city by e-mail; yet I can pay my water bill online. The return envelope they send just gets tossed in the recycling bin along with the envelope it came in.

With the Community Development Department having shrunk from more than 40 employees to just 17 employees and not much economic activity going on, I'm still perplexed as to why it takes two to three months to get a simple tenant improvement for a business approved. Surely it is something that could be done in less than a week, if not a couple of days. After all, isn't it private businesses who provide the jobs and tax revenues which make the city function?

And lastly, with many of us having lost our jobs there is another way that you can fill your time! Consider contacting the Antioch Police Department to become a Volunteer in Police Service (VIP) to add extra eyes and ears to our streets.

I think I can smell the turkey cooking, so like you, we'll be gathering as a family around the dinner table(s) as there is so much we all should be thankful this year.

Arne Simonsen served as an Antioch city councilman from 2000-2008.