Being Thankful on Thanksgiving Day 2011

It’s Thanksgiving Day in the United States today, the one day of the year when Americans all take time to be with family and give thanks, between helpings of turkey and stuffing and a football match, to thank God for their blessings, individual and as a nation.

America is the only country in the world that has an official day of national thanksgiving. Legend says that the custom is as old as America herself - that the Pilgrims who landed in 1620 in what would become Plymouth, Massachusetts, arrived late in the year and almost starved the first winter because of their lack of food. The nearby Indian tribes realized this and fed them, but in the Spring they also taught the Pilgrims what to eat, how to grow or collect food in the wild, and how to store it for winter. In gratitude, after their first harvest the Pilgrims invited the Indians to a feast to thank them for their precious help and to share the bounty that God had given them.

Thanksgiving. It is not just American; it is human.

Thanksgiving 2011? What do we have to be grateful for? Some people might say, ‘not much.’ The economy is miserable, unemployment is high, home foreclosures go on, Congress is not functioning as the Constitution intended, and the President pardons Thanksgiving turkeys better than he does anything in his official job description, starting with leading the country.

But, that would be a short-sighted view of affairs on Thanksgiving Day 2011. There is still plenty to be thankful for.

America survived the 10^th anniversary of 9.11 without a terrorist attack in her country or anywhere else in the world.

The US Dollar, long since buried by the pundits, is still the safe haven in a fiscal world where Europe is faltering and seems to be in free fall.

Investors are buying US Treasury Bonds at such a rapid rate that the interest Uncle Sam has to pay to borrow money is below 2% - the best in Europe is 2.15% and Germany is now feeling the heat from the flames of the burning Eurozone.

Afghanistan may actually be able in a year or so to take over its own internal defense, thanks to American tough-mindedness about staying the course and helping them create a nation. The nonsense about not being interested in nation-building I will leave for another day, but let’s not forget that America has built nations all over the world, from Japan to all of Europe, and the reward is that American allies are both independent and dependable.

The al-Qaida and Taliban in Pakistan have not yet stolen an atomic device from the Pakistani government and everyone in the world ought to be grateful for the long-suffering determination of America to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future. Thank-you, President Bush.

On the personal front, most of us have lost someone dear this year, but we have felt the love and support of family and friends who held us up and strengthened us when the going got tough.

Americans and other countries’ citizens have found time to help the poor, shelter the homeless and feed those who are hungry - we need to do more, but we should consider what would be their plight if we were to abandon charitable works.  

Nelson Mandela is still with us. The grand old man of African independence and freedom for black Africans shows simply by being there that the world is a better place than we had any right to expect. Thank-you, Mr. Mandela.

And babies are still being born. A reporter asked Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of the French President who just gave birth to a baby girl, if she wasn’t afraid to have a child in such a messed up world. Carla Bruni answered that babies don’t happen or not happen because of the world situation. Babies are our bet, if you like, that there will be a future and that we will be able to leave them a world that is not so poisoned by violence and hatred that they will be destroyed by it. Thank-you, Carla Bruni and all the other mothers of the world.

The Chronicler of the Old Testament wrote, “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.”

And, of course, William Shakespeare had the words for Thanksgiving Day centuries before it existed, but then we expect that of the Bard:

“O Lord that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.”