What Are You Thankful For?

Sometimes you can’t find any good reasons to be thankful, but you still are, in a way, at least. (I'm thankful you're reading this today.)

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. —Martin Luther

What Are You Thankful For?

words and holiday parade photos by C.A. Matthews

About this time of the year in the good ol’ USA there comes a national holiday that pretty much is celebrated by all Americans (except for Jehovah Witnesses, of course). It seems a benign enough harvest-time holiday with no overtly religious overtones, but with some covertly religious ones for those who partake. Americans of all persuasions and socio-economic backgrounds celebrate this holiday, with or without help from their local food pantry or soup kitchen.

This national holiday is called “Thanksgiving.” It was supposedly the brain child of English colonists who invited the local Native Americans over for a grand meal in thanks for the Native’s assistance they unwittingly gave their white invaders. If it hadn’t been for the kindness of the Native Americans, the English colonists would have completely died off their first winter at the Massachusetts Bay colony. Later, the Natives would come to regret their good manners when the Europeans stole their land and passed small pox on to them, but white historians conveniently leave out all those unpleasant details.

Instead, historians have chosen to emphasize the happier aspects of the Thanksgiving feast—good food, togetherness, neighborliness, and sharing leftovers with anyone who’ll take them off your hands so you’re not stuck eating turkey for the next three weeks. These aspects make it a pretty nifty national holiday to celebrate in the short, dark, and damp days of late autumn in North America—as others called “Canucks” also celebrate this harvest festival about a month earlier. (Apparently they forget the calendar includes months after October.) Thus, border families of mix American-Canadian heritage have the chance to eat two Thanksgiving dinners, with the added bonus of putting on enough blubber to survive the arctic onslaught of the coming winter.

While everyone sits around the dinner table feasting on the traditional meal of roast turkey and stuffing—which is no where close to the supposed original Thanksgiving feast of venison and seafood—guests are supposed to share what they are thankful for in their lives. This is when the problems begin.

In presidential election years, Americans with big mouths not filled with mashed potatoes and gravy might make mention of how thankful they are their favorite presidential candidate won the recent contest. Others, who are not feeling quite so happy about this outcome, will then attack the sanity of the first party and call them some rather nasty names. The atmosphere of Thanksgiving thankfulness will immediately evaporate. Thrown bread rolls and tossed turkey drumsticks can be turned into semi-lethal weapons if calmer heads don’t quickly prevail.

This is why on pain of having a pumpkin pie topped with whipped cream thrown in their face that most Americans do their best not to bring up politics at Thanksgiving. No one is more thankful than the hosts of the traditional meal that politics have been left where they belong—in the trash can out back—before entering their home. With dinner table small talk limited to sports, the latest Hollywood blockbuster, and how everyone will go about losing all the weight they’ll gain from gorging on turkey and several desserts, the day proceeds much more smoothly than things did ultimately between the Native Americans and the English colonists.

So, here it is another US presidential election year and Thanksgiving approaches. This begs the question for Americans and Non-Americans alike: What are you thankful for?

I realize this is a difficult question to answer for many 14 months into the genocide in Palestine where 70% of the bombs used to maim and kill innocent civilians (70% of which being women and children) come from the not-so-good ol’ USA. No way any person with a genuine conscience is going to say that they’re “thankful” their Raytheon, Boeing, and Northrup Grumman stocks have hit the roof at the expense of 300,000+ Palestinian and Lebanese lives. (A person with a conscience really shouldn’t be buying military-industrial complex stocks to begin with, in my opinion.)

I know this an almost impossible question to answer when “Genocide Joe” Biden has given the go ahead to the Ukrainian military to launch US/NATO provided missiles into Russia proper. This could possibly start World War III, and military analysts are claiming we’re within 60 days of complete and total Armageddon. Nuclear war and nuclear winter aren’t occurrences sane individuals would say they’re thankful for. Quite the opposite.

Many Americans are not feeling particularly thankful for being born (or naturalized) Americans at this point in their lives because how poorly the two aforementioned conflicts reflect upon our national image. If American politicians actually displayed compassion and empathy to our neighbors around the world, peace would prevail and we would be able to say we were truly thankful for being Americans instead of being ashamed of the fact. This isn’t the case today, alas.

But all is not entirely lost this Thanksgiving. Sometimes you can’t find any good reasons to be thankful, but you still are, in a way, at least. I’m thankful total Armageddon hasn’t begun (yet). I’m thankful I can read and write—and I’m eternally grateful that you are able to read what I write. I’m thankful that you’re still reading this and are thinking that perhaps I’m making a good point here. That is, in the midst of despair and shame we can still be thankful we’re still here, we’re still breathing and reading and able to think there’s got to be a better way to be Americans that doesn’t involve eternal wars for oil/resource grabs and funding/arming mass murderers of innocents.

There’s a lot to be thankful for in that last run-on sentence!

The ability to see beyond the crass consumerism of most American holidays and to contemplate how we could become a better people that others could truly be thankful for is a gift that’s worth celebrating. Give yourself a pat on the back as you head out the door to feed others on the street or at a homeless shelter or take your “End the Genocide!” sign out to stand besides others on a busy street corner or at a holiday parade.

We should feel grateful that we can think for ourselves, because obviously not everybody can. We should be thankful that we aren’t buying into the military-industrial complex’s greedy rationale or the zy-oh-nists’ monstrous lies that wars and genocide are necessary facts of life. We who can think for ourselves instinctively know they are not necessary. We will not be talked into taking a stance on the side of armed killers.

Be thankful that you and I both “get it,” that we aren’t brainwashed automatons who believe the sh*t thrown at us via the mainstream media. Be thankful that we don’t fall for the oligarchs’ drivel that somehow “Might makes right!” Be thankful that we haven’t become enslaved to the capitalist dogma of “He who has the most toys wins.”

We realize we’re better than that. We know we might even become better someday.

So, the answer to “What are you thankful for?” is to be thankful that we’re all fighting for what gives true meaning to life: empathy, compassion, generosity, tenacity, endurance, peace, and faith in each other. It’s easy to fall into a pit of despair and depression in these dark days, but we must keep heading toward the light, toward the higher ground.

No, not everyone will get it like you and I do, but we’ll keep working until they do. Together we can help each other deal with the ups and downs. By demonstrating kindness to our neighbors, maybe it’ll catch on and they’ll begin to think for themselves and disregard the war machine’s propaganda. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.

During this holiday season let’s be thankful Americans are capable of doing a good thing whenever they put their minds to it. Be thankful that you get it. And be sure to pass this good news on to others. Peace to you and yours always.

Santa Claus in 2024, with possible nuclear winter on the horizon, needs a military escort apparently… In another local holiday parade, Santa came riding atop of Humvee. The irony of mixing the war machine icons with a saint linked to the celebration of the birth of the “Prince of Peace” isn’t lost on those of us who can think for ourselves.

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