Thanksgiving For One… And All

No matter near or far, each year Americans are joined in spirit as we celebrate Thanksgiving.

For four centuries, the fourth Thursday in November is a special occasion, marked by feasting, football, faith and family.

I hope everyone’s in a festive mood because we sure do deserve Thanksgiving this year.

But before we dig into the roast turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, let us reflect on the significance of our oldest tradition.

 

This is a story told every year and passed down through the generations.

In 1621, pilgrims who had sailed from England to America, found their dreams of a new life fraught with peril against a harsh winter.

Just as when all seemed lost, the indigenous Wampanoag Native Americans intervened and offered their assistance, teaching the newcomers how to gather food and survive.

Together, they hunted deer and elk, fished for trout, planted corn and foraged for berries.

Their communities lived in harmony and the pilgrims thrived. Both sides signed a peace treaty and gathered for a three-day feast to commemorate the occasion. That came to be known as our first Thanksgiving.

Those were simpler times.

 

Listen, America is still great and will always be great. But slowly, the landscape of trust and togetherness – the ties that bind our great nation – continue to be eroded by negative ideologies.

Even at our dinner tables, on the most honored of occasions, Thanksgiving is hijacked by divisive narratives.

Take a look at this tweet by the Federal Bank of St Louis.

 

It seems that Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings now ought to be climate approved.

Well, I’d say we ought to ditch the plant-based dishes for a day because if anything, I’m thankful for the natural richness and plentiful harvest of our great land. If not for this abundance, where would our ancestors and by extension, ourselves be today?

Also, even among the most environmentally conscious folk, Thanksgiving is hardly the time to be doling out nutritional advice. This should mean something, coming from a fitness freak like myself. (Could you pass the cranberry sauce please?)

A traditional turkey dinner is not about managing carbon footprints or sourcing for environmentally friendly produce. Neither should it be framed as a remnant of colonialism or genocide.

These are damaging takes that do a disservice to our great nation and its peoples.

 

Rather than be divided by poorly constructed narratives, Thanksgiving is for one and all. Regardless of circumstances or creed, all deserve to share in the bounty on our dinner tables.

Just like slavery, the displacement of Native Americans is a part of our history. And while Thanksgiving represents a period of turbulence for their people and culture, it is also used as a time to remember the sacrifices of their ancestors lost to conflict.

All Americans, Native or not, ought to pause and honor the history of the people indigenous to this land. Ronald Reagan did, becoming the first President to pay tribute to Native Americans in a Thanksgiving proclamation in 1984.

 

To mark four centuries of Thanksgiving, there is nothing more important than having an attitude of gratitude.

Familiar rituals aside – football and family dinners – we must maintain civility and extend grace and harmony to all.

Thanksgiving is an image of warmth, family, food and gratitude. Let us do well to keep it that way.

We are just coming out from one of the worst stretches of hardship in modern American history. From the marginalized to the misrepresented, there are lots of things to mend and fix.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, here’s how an attitude of gratitude helped me to navigate this pandemic.

 

As Reagan did in 84, we must remember that Thanksgiving is to be inclusive.

To reject the advances of those who constantly try to divide us.

To embrace those different from us and recognize that fellow Americans they will always be.

To gaze in awe at the wondrous history of our land and all its peoples.

To share at the table and give praise to our Lord for his blessings.

And to pray for the poor Detroit Lions who started the Thanksgiving football tradition and are now forced to play every year on Turkey Day.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Gobble, gobble, gobble!