The last of the turkey has been consumed, you’ve probably enjoyed all the leftover dressing for breakfast, and there might still be some secret cranberry sauce in the corner of the fridge you didn’t tell anybody about. Officially Thanksgiving is over. Yet, I can’t help but feel that we are missing something important here. Something that get lost in the chaos of preparing dinner (or worse; having to board a flight on Thanksgiving eve) and in the ensuing madness of Black Friday. Are we missing the entire purpose of Thanksgiving?
I’m surprised at the amount of people who don’t know this, but contrary to popular culture, Thanksgiving doesn’t have anything to do with Pilgrims and Indians coming together. Thanksgiving wasn’t officially instituted until George Washington proclaimed a national day of prayer and thanksgiving. Eating turkey and such didn’t come around for at least one hundred years. why did President Washington feel this was important? Because the way he saw it, the new nation needed to have at least one day where Americans could remember their history. Everything they had been through, all the wars and conflicts. That way America could be better prepared for the future. For all their flaws, the Founding Fathers did at least understand the importance of what you might call a national memory. A culture or nation that forgot its history was doomed to fail.
Unfortunately this is a mindset we have forgotten today. Not just in America, pretty much everywhere in the world. Being thankful for where we are in life is a forgotten idea. Everywhere, we are so consumed with this ‘chicken little’ mindset. While I love technology as much as the next person, one of the downsides is how our constant flow of instant information can easily manipulate our mindsets. The news is pretty much always bad. Now people are being infected with a global paranoia and bitterness. Especially in the US, we have a big problem with protests quickly degrading into violence or looting. (All while protesting the very crimes they end up committing, how ironic) I’m not over-simplifying the issue, but I believe the primary culprit is a loss of thankfulness.
Let’s be clear about something: at no point in time has anything been ‘perfect’. When President Washington instituted Thanksgiving, America was not in a perfect spot. Far from it, he had the daunting task of building a nation from the ashes of a gruesome war. Many times we forget just how terrible the War for Independence truly was. I think John Adams summed it up well when he stated, ‘had I know the horrors that would follow us, I would never have favored independence’. Not only that but there were still constant raids from Native Americans, incensed at having their land encroached on, what little trading America was able to do was constantly disrupted by pirates, and on it goes. America was facing trouble on all fronts, politically, economically, spiritually. Yet, through all this, President Washington had the foresight to understand just how important a national day of thanksgiving was. It was for essential for national morale, as well as the spiritual health of a nation.
Bear something in mind here, Thanksgiving wasn’t supposed to be some isolated day. It was intended to be a refresher, something Americans would carry with them through the turmoils and trials that lay ahead. Something we have lost sight of, to our detriment. So that is why I say that even though Thanksgiving is officially over, we still need to be reminded of everything we have to be thankful for in our lives. Yes, times are tough, for a lot of reasons. Times were tough in Washingtons day too. I’m pretty sure that they would’ve appreciated things like plumbing and refrigeration, just two of the many things we take for granted today. So today, or tonight, or whenever you happens to be reading this, take a moment and really consider everything you have to be grateful for. Take a good look around you if it helps. Think about your home, your family, friends, car, whatever is around you, be grateful for what you have in your life. I know that in my own life, I sometimes get sucked up in all the noise and confusion, and I too take things for granted sometimes. Which is why I’m still thinking about Thanksgiving right now. Still remembering everything I have to be grateful for.
