ALT-11 Taking Time to Give thanks
Hallmark has had Thanksgiving cards and decorations out since September. Turkeys and decorative gourds are on sale at every supermarket. Pumpkin pie mix, cranberries, celery, stuffing mixes: it's all there. Ads for Christmas shopping sales the day after Thanksgiving are in every paper. The Thanksgiving we celebrate today is far different from the one in 1621 where Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast. We don't know exactly what they ate but wild fowl and venison were definitely on the menu. That first recorded Thanksgiving has become a symbol of cooperation between English colonists and Native Americans. While it was first for the Colonists, it was actually in keeping with the long Native American tradition of celebrating the earth's bounty and giving thanks for it. George Washington made the holiday official in 1789 and every president since Lincoln has proclaimed the holiday. FDR tried to move it up one week to make for a longer Christmas shopping season, but the protests overruled him. Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November.
As we make our long lists of ingredients, wondering if Aunt Jane would like apple instead of pecan pie this year, and hoping that Uncle Bill won't be drunk before we sit down at the table, it's time to reflect on the meaning of the season. Thanksgiving, in essence, is a very simple holiday. Be thankful and eat too much. We all seem to have achieved the second part of the command: expanded waistlines, indigestion, and refrigerators stuffed with leftovers for a week are testimony to that, but what about the second: Be Thankful.
In this year of economic uncertainty, thankfulness is not a word we hear very often. While we obsess over what we don't have growing 401K's, job security, extra cash for travel and luxuries, we seem to have forgotten what we do have. Most of us have a place to live, enough food to feed us, freedom to achieve, and hope for the future. There are some in our communities who don't and that's why Thanksgiving should be a time not just of greed but sharing. The Colonists knew that; we should, too. Thanksgiving gratitude can be as simple as having each person at the dinner table list something he or she is thankful for or as far reaching as serving at a soup kitchen or inviting a family down on their luck to share your table.
Thanksgiving is an excellent time to involve children in the preparation of the meal while raising their awareness of the plenty that we have. It's a time for sharing stories of other cultures and how they give back for what they receive. It's also a time for telling them about people in need and asking them for ideas about how to share with others. As the family and invited guests sit down together this year, hold hands and give thanks. Thanksgiving can become more than a holiday; it can become a way of life.
