Yesterday, after glancing at the calendar, I realized – as is the case each year – that the Thanksgiving Holiday had crept up again without notice. It’s one of my favorites because it encapsulates and memorializes very well the concept of gratitude.
It’s a time to pause and to reflect upon the fact that all of us in America sit upon the broad shoulders of all the others who preceded us and who sacrificed to build the great social, economic, and religious platforms upon which this nation rests.
The European Pilgrims who landed in Massachusetts Bay would be only among the first of a long line of immigrants streaming in from all points of the globe – voluntarily and involuntarily – to cast their lot for the success of America. They would work their butts off to found this nation and to make it grow over the centuries into this expansive country which so many of us have grown to love, despite all of its shortcomings.
I only wish our President would spend as much time proclaiming the proud history of America, as he does minimizing it before other countries and apologizing for what we are and for the less-than-perfect way in which we have developed.
An attitude of gratitude is not merely a slogan. It’s a concrete expression impelling us to be thankful for what we have, and a strong incentive to remember that in this nation and world, there are others not so fortunate with needs that have not been met.
I’ll try to remember that as I weave my way through the joyous season dawning upon us.
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