Thanksgiving, not ‘Thanksgetting’; emphasize gratitude

Posted 11/26/15

by John Colgan-Davis

Thanksgiving has long been my favorite national holiday. I observe and appreciate the others, but I especially like Thanksgiving for a number of reasons. I like that there …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Thanksgiving, not ‘Thanksgetting’; emphasize gratitude

Posted

by John Colgan-Davis

Thanksgiving has long been my favorite national holiday. I observe and appreciate the others, but I especially like Thanksgiving for a number of reasons. I like that there is little pressure about gifts, that it involves food, that it is a chance for people to come together and just be with each other and, most importantly, that it celebrates the idea of gratitude.

Gratitude seems to have a hard time of it in our modern world, and I am glad that there is at least one day where that thought is pretty much universally recognized and celebrated. I love taking time out to focus on being grateful for what I have in my life, to slow down and take a serious look at the people who are important parts of my life and to just live in a few moments of simple appreciation of all that surrounds me.

This year, though, I have noticed that Thanksgiving seems to be nearly absent on the national commercial scene. We seem to have fast forwarded from the Halloween commercial onslaught right past Thanksgiving and into Christmas mode. Store window decorations, TV and media ads have barely taken note this year of our one day set aside for reflection and being grateful. Of course we are a country of commerce. We are a civilization, after all, and civilizations are about trade and cities and growth and expansion.

Business is central to our growth. I get that, and there is nothing wrong with that per se. But there are times when it seems a little out of bounds and over the top. Looking at what we do and how we do it on the commercial front is often a good indication of where we are as a culture, and this year we are not into being grateful.

This year we seem to be hell-bent and desperate about jetting into the land of profit and super-consumption. And when that feeling is on, there is little room for being grateful. Ads this year talk about “winning Christmas,” “proving your love” and even something called “Thanksgetting.” That is a far cry from gratitude, and that bothers me.

But just when I am getting cynical and depressed about all of that, I remember that gratitude is something that seems to be essential to humans; something humans seem to need to do. The idea of having some type of “thanksgiving” with a lower case “T” is nearly universal, whether it is represented by something as simple as saying grace or by the more elaborate rituals and celebrations that have existed throughout our history and on every part of the planet.

Pre-civilized people who farmed, ancient civilizations such as the Greeks, Romans and Chinese, and just about every religious tradition has had rituals and days around the fall equinox where humans give thanks to beings or gods or spirits for what they hope will be a good harvest.

Nomadic and herding cultures didn't farm, but they, too, had holidays and rituals that involved giving thanks and showing gratitude for the bounty of the earth. We seem to need the intervention or help of mysterious sources outside ourselves to get by, and we need to acknowledge that.

We also need to realize that by ourselves we do not do well: humans are social animals, and we need the mutual support and interdependence of other humans to accomplish things. It is a good idea, most cultures think, to thank one another for that. We simply need each other too much to do otherwise.

So I hope more of us can resist the”gimme” and “I want” state of so much of our culture today and focus on gratitude. That we can slow down, stand back and realize how much there is to be grateful for. However and whyever it is so, a lot of our lives are way above and beyond our own efforts. At least one day a year we Americans can get to be truly cognizant of that fact and share it with others. We get the opportunity to look at our lives and express our thanks for our situation just a little more humbly. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

John Colgan-Davis is a long-time Mt. Airy resident, recently retired teacher and harmonica player with the Dukes of Destiny, who will be playing Friday, Nov. 27, 9 p.m., at Alma Mater, 7165 Germantown Ave.

opinion