Editorial: Thanksgiving 2003

That may sound a strange thing to say, but we all know how easy it is to get so caught up in the trappings of a holiday celebration that we tend to do little more than nod at its core meaning. And even then, we may do so with a high degree of embarrassed self-consciousness, as if we are being overly sentimental and unsophisticated.

But there is nothing excessively emotional or naive in the recognition that most of us in this grand country of ours are beneficiaries of great good and that even life itself, for all its travails, is a miraculous thing. What is more, it is rewarding to see past the bad that so often occupies our thoughts to the blessings that surround us; it is a means of lifting our spirits and refreshing ourselves, of giving ourselves handgrips and footholds for what comes next in our lives.

We might recall that America's first Thanksgiving came not after a year of plenty, but after a year in which disease and starvation had stalked the Pilgrims, leaving only about half the original number still alive. Abraham Lincoln renewed the holiday in the middle of this country's worst tragedy, the bloody, awful Civil War. Lincoln understood that there remained much to be grateful for in the country he was trying to reunite, and he must have understood that gratitude could help sustain his fellow Americans in the fight.

Focusing on the reasons for gratitude does not mean obliterating our awareness of the wrongs in this world, least of all those we might help set right through our own actions. It does mean giving our lives a kind of intellectual and spiritual balance so that when we turn our attention to those wrongs, we will be rejuvenated and see them as part of a whole, not as the only realities worth noting.

Thanksgiving is a time for many of us to spend pleasant hours with our families and to know the joy of worship, and it is an occasion for giving thanks if only we will take the time. Among those things we should be thankful for is the holiday itself.