Americans will be away for a long weekend this week. Thanksgiving is a time for family and friends to gather, eat extraordinary food, drink while watching football and avoid discussing Antifa, Kyle Rittenhouse’s cognitive decline, Fetterman’s cognitive impairment, Paul Pelosi’s story, January 6 and critical race theory.
It will be called an early evening on Thursday, but the real holiday is in the morning on “Black Friday”, when gluttony in the nation shifts from food to the conspicuous purchase electronics and other Chinese-manufactured junk that will unceremoniously be wrapped on the morning of the next secularized, ritualistic celebration material consumption in December.
There might still be some spirituality in Thanksgiving celebrations in some homes. One might offer a short grace before the meal. This will increase the discomfort and highlight the difference between the segments of the family who still believe in God and those who have given up their faith to worship the new deities: reason and secularism. Perhaps an aging aunt will make everyone go through the tedious process of naming what they’re grateful for this year. Although the kids may roll their eyes, everyone will eventually go through the motions: the sale of the house and acceptance to graduate school.
This may sound cynical. As I age, I am more aware of how liberal secular society has sucked out the significance of annual celebrations. These celebrations were meant to be a collective re-dedication and re-dedication to the common values that shaped who we are as people: freedom, faith, family, etc. We have gradually become embarrassed about our holidays as leftism has replaced the Christian faith that once characterized the American identity.
The “Indigenous People’s Day ” is well on its way to – one more chance for Americans to sham themselves for the violence that accompanied the founding of the United States. Although the Fourth of July is still valid, it is on thin ice . The woke reading on Independence Day was that it is a jingoistic celebration of toxic, white masculinity which was the core of the American Revolution, and continues to be the driving force behind American imperialism, neocolonialism, and neocolonialism. Some see Thanksgiving as a way to remember our shame. The Thanksgiving story is a reminder of the near-annihilation and greed of the Indians who were sacrificed in order to fulfill Manifest Destiny.
Unfortunately, Aunt Mary’s request to everyone to list what they are thankful for doesn’t mark a brief return the true spirit and meaning of Thanksgiving. It is actually the symbol of the triumph of secular liberalism in remaking the holiday. This holiday is not called “Thanksthinking”. It is known as Thanks Giving. This means that the main focus of the day is a specific action: giving. A giving of what though. We are grateful. But to? This question suggests what has been removed from the holiday.
It’s not a giving thanks simply by thinking about and naming things one is grateful. This task has obvious materialist undertones. Things that people name are always things. You have received many good things. You earned good things. It was a great experience. This ignores the forest. Pilgrims were not thankful for the gentle winter or this pumpkin. They were grateful for a general status of providence. They were grateful for the small blessings they received every day, despite seemingly incessant hardship.
To whom did they express gratitude for all these things? To the benevolent and merciful God who saw them across the ocean, gave them materials for the winter and moved the hearts of native people to help the newcomers whenever they could. They didn’t just thank God for the blessings that they received. They expressed gratitude for the and bad things that happened to them. They thanked God for their hardships. This is a Christian habit that was discussed in detail by Paul the Apostle.
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To whom do we show our gratitude? Are we giving thanks? It’s not. Myopically, we reflect on the moments and items that brought us joy or nourishment. We rarely consider our overall state of providence. Many of us see the blessings we are grateful for as temporary respite from a life that we often find difficult, tragic, unfair, or unjust. Many of us are unaware that America today, even for those least “privileged”, offers a wealth of blessings that were unimaginable to our ancestors. This is an indicator of ingratitude.
The pathos which is supposed to be the essence of Thanksgiving, is not about what we have. A spirit that expresses gratitude –the pathos that defines Thanksgiving –isn’t only about the things we have. Gratitude is a way to live. It means that we should be able to focus on the daily abundance in our lives. We take too much of our material comfort for granted. Instead, we should focus on what we do not have and what we want (Set the alarm for Black Friday). We want it to happen. We thank the cosmos in the following way: We express our joy that everything has worked out as if our blessings were merely good fortune or the rewards for our virtuous actions or hard work.
Recognizing one’s blessings and the gifts from God is a way to cultivate gratitude. Instead of listing the things that you are thankful for with your family, this Thanksgiving you might talk about what gratitude means, how one lives and how one gives it to who it should be given.
