Thanksgiving - a Small Meditation

Little known fact - Thanksgiving isn't a strictly American holiday.

Way back in the day, it was common for a day of thanksgiving to be announced for any number of reasons and at any level of community. Days of Thanksgiving were announced for the births in the royal family. They were announced for good harvests, or near misses (think fires and floods). They were announced for things like peace treaties and successes in battles. There were quite a variety of them announced in early american history, and various libraries have the sermons preached in the little community churches. It was common and could happen at any time of year.  In fact, the Thanksgiving that we celebrate these days didn't become an official holiday until 1863. Over 200 years after the theoretical first thanksgiving of the pilgrims (1621).

Somewhere along the way the idea of Thanksgiving got generally tied up with our national holiday and with the Pilgrims. The history with the Pilgrims is really a little dodgy if you think about it. I mean it's great to be grateful to the Native Americans getting the Pilgrims through their first winter, but wouldn't it have been better to show that gratitude a little better? There's two sides to anything.

Don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving. I love being with my family and celebrating each other. It just really never had anything to do with the Pilgrims. Their Thanksgiving has nothing to do with our Thanksgivings. In Abraham Lincoln's proclamation declaring the formation of the national holiday, there is no mention of the Pilgrims at all. Because it's not about that and it shouldn't be about that. It's about having and showing gratitude. Meaningful and real gratitude for things immediate to our lives and not some fictionalized candy floss dream of a time no one can personally remember and that we should perhaps look at more critically than we do.

So, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for my family and for my son. I'm grateful for my husband who is perhaps the most patient and generous man I know. I'm grateful that I found teaching. I'm grateful for my students. I'm grateful that I have my vision and I can read. I'm grateful that I had 35 years with my grandfather and that his passing in the end was gentle.

It's about gratitude people. Look around. No matter how unhappy we are or what bad things happen, there is something we should be grateful for.