Strolling through the memories of Thanksgivings gone by I wonder aloud if there is any integrity left in it.
Thanksgiving. The forgotten gentile feast day.
Retailers push Christmas shopping incentives closer and closer to Halloween.
The traditional Christmas dinner is a Thanksgiving remix.
Turkey or Ham; honey'd and saturated in cholesterol enhancing steroids. Bacon-ny green beans floating in some kind of goo. Orange potatoes float in a hot tub of marshmallow foam. Pies. Cakes. Cookies.
It's as if the angel of gluttony is passing over taking the first born of anyone who does not have their doorposts splashed from a ladle full of spinach dip and carrot juice.
Our gluttonous indulgence with visions of bursting cornucopia dancing in our heads deceives.
Puritan and Aboriginal sit together at an Amish built trestle table glowing over genetically enhanced golden brown Butterballs and magically sweetened mythological maize of supermarket proportions.
Thanksgiving. The tradition teaches the discipline of managing our attitudes. Thanks is given, not for things granted -- or taken for granted-- but for life where death oppresses like a guerrilla boss and family where most of your kin are unreachable and friends where enemies abound and are born exponentially from a fragile trust.The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. -H.U. Westermayer
Maybe it is no accident that Thanksgiving falls close on the calendar to Veteran's Day.
For those close to our hearts but far from our grasp, I choose to revere the forgotten feast day. In their honor and in the spirit of the first Thanksgiving, gratitude will be an intentional attitude. It is an awareness of what I lack that fosters appreciation for what I have and those with whom I have to share it.
Linus van Pelt: This is not unlike another famous Thanksgiving episode. Do you remember the story of John Alden, and Priscilla Mullins, and Captain Miles Standish?
Patricia 'Peppermint Patty' Reichardt: This isn't like that one at all.
Linus van Pelt: In the year 1621, the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving feast. They invited the great Indian chief Massasoit, who brought ninety of his brave Indians and a great abundance of food. Governor William Bradford and Captain Miles Standish were honored guests. Elder William Brewster, who was a minister, said a prayer that went something like this: 'We thank God for our homes and our food and our safety in a new land. We thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice."
Patricia 'Peppermint Patty' Reichardt: Amen.
