The decision to be thankful

 

Turkey is upon us soon and our kitchens will be engulfed in aromas of turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pies.  I have to admit that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I can attribute my selection of Thanksgiving to 3 factors.  The first two are easily explained and understood.  The third reason is difficult to understand and even more difficult to understand.  This third reason will be the focus of this post.  As always lets get some background and context before the meat of this post.

The first reason for selecting Thanksgiving as my favorite holiday is it's all encompassing nature.  This Wikipedia Article outlines some of the roots of Thanksgiving.  Its foundations are quite varied.  One foundation is giving thanks for a good harvest. However, thanks were were also expressed for safe transatlantic crossings.  The article also outlines some of the relationships between Christian celebrations and Thanksgiving.  Yet unlike Christmas, Easter or Hanukkah Thanksgiving is not exclusively associated with a single religion.  Many religions express thanks and gratitude as a basic principle, however thanksgiving is not exclusively related to any one of them.  There are individuals that do not celebrate Thanksgiving (see article).  I was not able to find a single main stream group that was against Thanksgiving.  Because it lacks a definitive association there is very little in the way people expressing its "true" meaning.  Although there is the annual debate regarding the onset of Pumpkin Spice lattes.  In short Thanksgiving is for all of us and we all define our own special versions of it.

The second factor also has to do with variety.  There is such a diverse inventory of events and ways to share time with others.  This stems from the first factor.  Since there is no single authoritative entity dictating what is or isn't truly a Thanksgiving event anything goes.  There are running events (usually called a turkey trot).  For those who like to lie on the couch there are parades on TV.  Or, if so inclined you can attend them in person.  Thanksgiving is the start of the Holiday season, time to put up the Christmas lights.  Although I do not participate there is also black Friday shopping sales.  Lets not forget the food!  Turkey, stuffing, pies, gravy, all yummy!  After food comes football games.  NFL games on Thursday and college ball on Friday and Saturday then back to the NFL on Sunday.  Our town uses the main square for a number of events over the weekend.  Rides, music, pictures with Santa and the lighting of the Christmas are just a few of the events.  All this shared with friends and family makes for a very special holiday.

The third and final factor begins with a dilemma.  How to celebrate when you are not thankful?  This is is accurately portrayed by the author of this NY Times article (link at the bottom).

TWENTY-FOUR years ago this month, my wife and I married in Barcelona, Spain. Two weeks after our wedding, flush with international idealism, I had the bright idea of sharing a bit of American culture with my Spanish in-laws by cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner.

Easier said than done. Turkeys are not common in Barcelona. The local butcher shop had to order the bird from a specialty farm in France, and it came only partially plucked. Our tiny oven was too small for the turkey. No one had ever heard of cranberries.

Over dinner, my new family had many queries. Some were practical, such as, “What does this beast eat to be so filled with bread?” But others were philosophical: “Should you celebrate this holiday even if you don’t feel grateful?”

As the author states he is sharing with people who had never celebrated Thanksgiving.  They obviously understood gratitude but were questioning setting aside a day to celebrate it.  This does present a dilemma for most of us.  I am very blessed both materially and socially (wonderful friends and family).  Not that everything is perfect, I have had some of difficulties (layoffs some health issues).  Anyone reviewing my life would conclude that I have very little reason to complain.  What I really enjoy about Thanksgiving is the active choice to be grateful.  I really think gratefulness is not a virtue we humans are born with.  If we are, we often dismiss it.  All of us feel we are entitled to a particular  lifestyle.  At a restaurant are we truly grateful for our meal?  The meal is ours, after all we paid for it.  We paid for the Turkey and fixings but some how that meal is elevated to a spiritual level that we cannot help but be grateful for.  Shouldn't our gratitude extend to all the meals we receive?

In all of this I think of Thanksgiving less of a "celebration" and more of an awakening.  A better thought would be a "spiritual awakening". From google:

What does it mean to have an awakening?

For many, a spiritual awakening is a call to a higher consciousness and state of deeper mental awareness.

Thanksgiving is a time to awaken the gratitude genes and put forth the effort to act in a positive manner.  This is wonderfully described by Arthur C Brooks (the author of the NY times article linked below)

I stumbled over this last question. At the time, I believed one should feel grateful in order to give thanks. To do anything else seemed somehow dishonest or fake — a kind of bourgeois, saccharine insincerity that one should reject. It’s best to be emotionally authentic, right? Wrong. Building the best life does not require fealty to feelings in the name of authenticity, but rather rebelling against negative impulses and acting right even when we don’t feel like it. In a nutshell, acting grateful can actually make you grateful.

Celebrate the spiritual awakening that our efforts bring this Thanksgiving season.

Link to NY Times article by Arthur C. Brooks