Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. In part because it is a uniquely American celebration, about the founding of our country. In part because it hasn’t been commercialized. It helps, too, that it’s part of a four-day weekend every year. And maybe most important is that it’s all about family gathered ‘round the table for a feast.
Every year before Thanksgiving, I email and fax out a story about the first Thanksgiving. I think it might have run as an editorial in The New York Times, way back when, but otherwise don’t know it’s origin. As the story has it, a group of early settlers in what is now Massachusetts had gotten together to fast and ask forgiveness for their sins. This was their practice. But suddenly a small man got up in the back of the room and stalked forward. "I must dissent," he said. "I have heard enough of sin and damnation."
A startled gasp went through the room. The little man went on. "I have fasted 'til my belly griped, meditated my sins 'til my mind reeled, asked forgiveness 'til I was ashamed even for asking. Now, I must lift mine eyes in thanks, or lift them not at all."
He said, "We had privations. Some of us died. We froze and we starved. But now we have a harvest. We have wood for our fires, meat for our eating, clothes to cover our nakedness. Why then do we abase ourselves? What is our sin, beyond the fact that we are still alive?"
He lifted his head proudly. "Let us be done with whimpers and complaints! Let us lift our hearts and thank the good Lord for the things we have and the work we still can do!"
Well, doncha know but that turned it all around. Soon they were feasting and giving thanks. Bingo. And why I think of Thanksgiving as our holiday. We are a nation of immigrants who struggled to establish ourselves in a new world. And indeed they began, and we work to continue building, a society of pioneers, free thinkers, and creators.
We as a nation are a synthesis of east and west, a sampling of the world’s races, religions, and cultures.
We invented the electric light and powered flight. This breath-catching communications revolution we started will redefine how we interact as people.
We might just give thanks for being alive, with the opportunity to contribute our best in this extraordinary time.
Let us thank goodness, for its perseverance, and recommit ourselves to its complete triumph.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.
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