Morning Thanks--Thanksgiving*

Thanksgiving is the most un-American of holidays.  Christmas should be, I suppose, but it's been so thoroughly co-opted (starting just 48 hours from now with Black Friday) that it's almost silly to talk about it as if the holiday were somehow counter-cultural.  Tons of merchants--small businesses--end the year in the black only because of the flood of holiday shopping. 

In the public mind, Christmas is, in a way, almost the opposite of Thanksgiving because it's all about things--about buying and selling, about giving and getting.  It's about more, a kind of holiday for coveters.

But on Thanksgiving people ritually express their thanks not for what they'll get but for what they already have--be it stuff or health or happiness.  William Jennings Bryan said that on Thanksgiving we celebrate our dependence.  Isn't that a great line?  But could anything be more un-American?

And here's a boost:  according the John Tierney, in the NY Times, Thanksgiving is also the most "psychologically correct holiday of the year" because simple thanks are good for you--good for the mind, good for the heart (literally), and good for the soul.  Seriously.

Thirty-six hours from now, I will, I'm certain, feel as stuffed as our 13-pound turkey was.  I'll try like mad to get outside to move around, to walk, to deflate my insides from that cloud of mashed potatoes and gravy.  That'll happen--trust me.
 
According to Tierney, research makes clear this plain-and-simple fact:  thanksgiving--which is to say giving thanks--is just plain good for you. 

Strange as it may sound, dependence is a blessing.  That's why tomorrow's holiday--barring eating disorders and family feuds--may well be the most blessed of all, if we really do celebrate, with prayer, our dependence on God.  My goodness, I sound like a Calvinist.

Which reminds me, did you know that the that first Thanksgiving lasted three days?  A bit excessive for those staunch and starchy Calvinists, don't you think?  Then again, maybe they knew better than we do.

Anyway, thanks for the idea, Mr. William Jennings Bryan:  on Thanksgiving, we get together and celebrate our dependence. 

Maybe even a bottle rocket or two. 

It's a real Calvinist holiday, a big day for all of us.

Except turkeys. 

This morning's morning thanks are for Thanksgiving.
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An old post--from Thanksgiving, 2011. This morning I should be in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, with a whole bunch of family.