Thanks Giving

Very few holidays have resisted the onslaught of commercialization as well as this one; turkey motifs, thanksgiving cards, and the Lions - Cowboys tradition notwithstanding. I suppose that’s the main reason this old-before-his-time cynic finds it the most meaningful of the commonly accepted ‘holy days’ in our culture.

Almost 400 years ago white folk like me… well, actually, not too much like me come to think of it, but… splashed ashore in Massachusetts with empty bellies and desperate hopes. The promised-land images of their mythology shouted so loudly that it reinforced an unrelenting faith that all they found was theirs, and they gave thanks. But within a year half of our colonists were dead. Not to mention the locals who succumbed to the viral hitchhikers that accompanied our seafaring pioneers from the ‘old world’.

When reading accounts, specifically letters, of people who lived more than a century ago or so, I’m struck by the preoccupation with their correspondents’ health. The technology of daily living - and the standards of protection from disease it can provide - had not advanced but at a snail’s pace since time immemorial. A season’s bad weather meant poor crops meant going hungry. An infant making it to adulthood was a 50-50 shot. A less than serious wound could lead to death. Life is fragile and perhaps that fragility was a little more apparent in days past.

In this harsh reality, in some ways more than in our own, the ritual of giving thanks to powers beyond our understanding or influence has been a common, central feature in cultures from around the globe. Are we less “thankful” now? I can’t answer for sure because of my lack of experience living in any century other than this one (and to be technically accurate the latter part of the last). I can, however, think of a few things that I would say aren’t appreciated enough.

The humanity in the role is one. Our society is so hyper-specialized in its economic development that interactions with other people are incredibly specific. One person sells me stamps at the post office and plays no other role in my life. Another processes my ATM card at the grocery store and yet another bags my provisions; that is, as long as I don’t use the cashier-less automated line. There I’m not directly interacting at all with the person who designed, built, delivered, or maintains the damn thing. This acute specialization has a dehumanizing effect and I think it takes more empathy to appreciate the human being on the other side of the interaction.

The services of the bounty are another. Economic analysis is woefully inadequate. I’ll paraphrase Paul Hawken. Economic figures describe only a partial picture, like actors putting on a play: (Enter stage right: natural resources), insert your performance here, (exit stage left: waste). There’s no account of the constant replenishing of oxygen by the seas and forests. There’s no account of the water-cleansing services of wetlands and the atmosphere. And there’s no account of the productivity of that unimaginably complex system - flesh of living organism Earth – the soil. As the planet's ability to provide these ecological services is degraded, only a faint shadow of their deficit is discernable in GDP, corporate balance sheets, and employment forecasts. Again, I think our culprit here is similar: a dislocation from and unfamiliarity with the rest of the natural world.

Third is, for lack of a better word, fate. And perhaps we’re not as bad at this; each person has their own take on it. But by and large ours is a culture of personal initiative, control of destiny, and individual freedom. We are uncomfortable with forces outside our influence. The random tragedy seems more dreadful, more unfair. This is a faulting of fate. But no matter how well we control our surroundings, insulate from dangers, and throw money at the insurance industry, life takes totally unpredictable twists every day. I try to remember this on Thanksgiving, and hope I can keep it in mind every day for another year.

As my 4 year old son, for whose health I am unfathomably thankful, volunteered when asked to say grace (same root as gratitude):

Thank you Earth, for all this food,
For creatures we love, and all things good.

Happy Thanksgiving