Be a Thankful Turkey
Thanksgiving happened recently, and it was an awfully good day for me! I’d spent an entire year storing up things to be thankful for, and frankly I’m not sure I could have dammed the tides of my thankfulness very much longer. When the morning finally arrived and my alarm went off promptly at 7:30am, I sprang from my bed and began listing all the things I had to be thankful for. The list was long and sincere, and every word I spoke caused me to take another mental draught of the sweet, intoxicating liquor that is gratitude. By dinnertime it had completely overcome me, and I was whirling around carousing in a thankful stupor. My thank-yous were becoming so frequent by the second course that I had difficulty chewing my turkey, which incidentally is something I was incredibly thankful for. Yes, I was thankful for a million different things. The list included many things—from the greater blessings like my family and friends, to questionable blessings like my pledge brothers, right down to the simple things—the third piece of pumpkin pie and the gravy stains on my sweater vest. It was a gracious day, and now all I’ll have to look forward to is Christmas.
This account of my day is exaggerated—but only moderately. I love Thanksgiving, and it is a holiday that we ought to hold in high esteem. Unfortunately, though, it does not receive the credit it is due. How many folks do you see getting genuinely excited about Thanksgiving? There is often plenty of criticism around December-time that Christmas has become over-commercialized and that the true spirit of Christmas gets buried under a pile of wrapping paper. I think the same evil forces are at work with Thanksgiving. It is easy to enjoy the pies, and hams, and turkey, and football, and to forget the underlying values of Thanksgiving—gratitude and honoring the legacy of our forefathers to whom we owe a massive debt.
Evidence of this under-appreciation can be seen all around us in stores and shopping centers shortly after Halloween. I visited the drugstore earlier this past November to pick up a prescription, about one week after Halloween, and those villains had nutcrackers for sale already. This is not a rare find: the Christmas shopping season is a voracious beast that respects no boundaries or social courtesies. Together with the well-timed Halloween, it schemes to annually overshadow Thanksgiving and distract us from the merits of a holiday that is genuinely valuable despite the fact that you don’t get presents. Case in point, I believe (and lament) that Turkey Day is becoming lost in the shadow of more flashy holidays[1] and treated as a free dinner that you pay off with a one minute “I’m thankful for…” speech. Just as the Christmas season is (ideally) a month-long celebration of the values of giving complete with decorations and carols that build excitement and remind us all month long of the coming holiday, so should Thanksgiving be given its due season to build anticipation and give us adequate time to reflect on what we are thankful for.
I don’t mean to preach[2], but I believe it is extremely important to be grateful for all the blessings in life. So many of the things we enjoy are given to us and are only ours as the result of another’s sacrifice: We have our country and our freedom which is the gift of a large collection of individuals ranging from our nation’s forefathers to its veterans and its great thinkers throughout its history. We have the privilege of attending Wabash College, which was built upon and preserved by the work of many individuals. Our teachers, preachers, coaches, and parents have taught us valuable lessons and raised us with enough sense to get into this wonderful school. We owe particularly special thanks to our parents for our upbringing and bringing us into this charming world. I believe that we are a lot more dependent on our past, our communities, and fate’s guiding hand than we regularly admit. We’ve racked up a massive debt for all these wonderful things, and the only thing we’ve really got to pay it with is gratitude.
If you’re still reading at this point, and God bless you if you are, then I would like to issue this challenge to you: take a minute or two to reflect on all your manifold blessings and say a little heartfelt thank you. And take caution that you don’t take life’s turkeys for granted. Just as Santa smiles when folks reflect on the true meaning of Christmas, so must the pilgrims smile up in heaven when they witness genuine thankfulness.
[1] Be it known that I do not dislike Halloween and Christmas. They are wonderful holidays. I would also argue that Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday too.
[2] Truthfully, I do.
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