So, Let’s consider: Are we really thankful?

It’s the weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday. I’m sure that the stores are packed with all those materialists looking for the best sales of things that they think they need but haven’t got. I guess they call it Black Friday for a reason. Then there’s Cyber Monday when I’m sure the internet will be crammed with the same people buying yet more stuff they think they need. I’m reminded of the George Carlin skit on people and their “stuff” – I’m sure you can find it on youtube.

You really have to hand it to marketing types that excel at convincing people to part with their hard earned cash for things they really don’t need, or in many cases break out that well worn credit card for the same.

During seasons that have are being redefined by monetarization and gifting, do we ever get back to the real reasons for Thanksgiving? That of giving thanks.

Of all the holiday seasons, I find that I appreciate Thanksgiving the most. Unlike many other religious centric holiday seasons (Easter, Christmas, etc.), it’s one that actually has a solid base in actual history and fact. No, I’m not doubting the birth, death and resurection of the Christ child, but celebrating it on a formerly pagan feast for Nimrod or the winter solstice, etc, or His resurrection during the Feast of Ishtar are events that I personally find problematic.

I don’t think I have to recount the origins of Thanksgiving. It’s well known that it was a time when peoples of different faiths, nationalities, personal and social priorities, and many other diffentiating aspects of life, gathered together to give thanks. They gave thanks to each other, they were thankful for what they had, they were thankful to their God and his beneficence. It was a time of positive celebration, of coming together in commonness. It would appear they set aside what divided them and concentrated on that which unified them.

So, in this ever increasing materialistic centric world, let’s be reminded to be thankful for the simple things. For friendship. For freedom. For our country, and if you’re not a US citizen I would presume that you’re also thankful for things where you live and are from. For our God and his benevolence. For family. For the so many things that we’ve grown to take for granted as givens.

During this season, I would also invite you to extend your thanks to others that you may not even know. The homeless person on the street or local organizations that help others in need, and other peoples and groups. By helping them, you share the spirit of thanksgiving in ways that you may never realize or understand.

In these times of strife and mayhem, there’s so many reasons to give thanks.

Be thankful.

I’m Don Rima and that’s the view From Where I Stand.

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