It’s Thanksgiving! I heard that the President pardoned a turkey today. I’m not sure what gaffe Vice President Biden made, but it’s nice that the President is such a forgiving individual.
Consider how delighted the Pilgrims would be to live in our times. No, not because there have been so many advancements or that our lives are less difficult … but because they could wander down the streets of Washington, D.C., turn in an any direction, fire their muskets, and have a great chance of hitting a “turkey.” Whether you spell it “fowl” or “foul,” there have never been so many “turkeys” at one place in time as there are in our Nation’s capital.
But enough about politics! It’s Thanksgiving, so let us “give thanks.” I don’t know about you, but I like holidays that give me an idea of what I should do when they arise … and perhaps no other secular holiday does this as well as Thanksgiving. Look at it through the eyes of a child (to preserve some degree of purity), and you’ll see what I mean.
When I was a child, I knew that New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day were specific days, but their names didn’t give me a clue as to what they represented in the adult world (i.e., a Bacchanalian night of revelry followed by a day of recovery while watching football).
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day didn’t even exist until 1983 … a date well past my childhood years. Even so, it doesn’t exactly give us much guidance as to what we should do. It clearly recognizes the life of an individual, but there isn’t any clarion call to celebrate that life in any specific way on that day.
When I was a child, we had Abraham Lincoln’s birthday George Washington’s birthday almost back-to-back with Valentine’s Day sandwiched in between. With regard to the birthdays, I knew that they singled out Abraham Lincoln and George Washington as particularly great Presidents … but again, what was I to do? Of course, in the 1980s, the two birthdays were consolidated into Presidents Day to honor the two of them simultaneously (as Lincoln’s birthday was never really a Federal holiday but made for a great retail sales opportunity). Today, the holiday’s name is so nebulous that I’ll bet most children think it applies to all Presidents … sort of in the nature of the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality that is so prevalent today. And hence, some children sing, “Mmm Mmm Mmm … Barack Hussein Obama!” … even though the day doesn’t technically celebrate Presidents in general.
As for Valentine’s Day, I was terribly conflicted as a child, and its name gave me little direction. I knew about the candy and cards, but I also heard about a certain massacre that happened on the same day. As a result, I recall thinking that if you didn’t give your sweetheart a nice card and some candy that she liked, she might have you killed! That’s quite a burden on a child. Why don’t they just rename it “Support Hallmark, Brach’s and the Rip-Off Florist-of-Your-Choice Day?” Then, we’d all instinctively understand what it’s about.
Then, there’s Memorial Day. As a child, I recognized that I was supposed to remember something or someone, but I wasn’t quite sure what or who. While it has grown to be a very meaningful holiday from my perspective, as a child, it would have been helpful to call it “Say a Pray for Fallen Veteran’s Day” or something like that.
And how about Independence Day. Was I supposed to ignore my parents and act like I was “independent?” I didn’t know. I was just a kid! And today, it’s even worse. Children don’t even know that it’s Independence Day. They just think it’s the Fourth of July. Well, duh! And the next day is the Fifth of July! Adults are soooooo stupid! I think we should rename the holiday, or at least tie the “Independence” back to our country in some way. Otherwise, we should just rename it Fireworks and Picnic Day, since that’s pretty much all that children think it is at this point.
I have to admit, Labor Day always confused me. If it’s “Labor” Day, why do adults get to take the day off work? Shouldn’t they be “laboring?” It never really made any sense to me … and it really still doesn’t. I think they just inserted it into the calendar to give children a break from their first week or two of school. Nobody should have to return to school on a full-time basis after a three-month vacation without some sort of break-in period. To this day, I believe that’s why the holiday actually exists.
Next, we have Veterans Day. As a child, this caused a lot of confusion for me with respect to Memorial Day (although I’ve noticed that a lot of adults seem to confuse Memorial Day with Labor Day as well). I could never really understand why we celebrated the armed forces twice a year. It was easier for me when Veterans Day used to be called Armistice Day because I could tie it to an event in history. However, even that didn’t give me a lot of direction. I just knew that we would go to a store and I was supposed to wear a paper poppy boutonniere for the rest of the day.
I won’t get into religious holidays other than to say that most of them aren’t particularly descriptive either. Luckily, they’re marketed better, so most children quickly embrace their “retail” definition … if not their actual significance.
Then, there’s good old Thanksgiving! Even as a child, I could wrap my mind around that one. Oh sure, my elementary school teachers may have butchered the actual history of the holiday; and it was years before I knew that it didn’t officially exist on an ongoing basis until 1863 when Lincoln proclaimed it as such (which may be why he got his own day for awhile); or that it changed under FDR from the last Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday in November in 1939 to better separate the two holiday seasons for retail sales purposes; or that it only took another two years for Congress to ratify his recommendation (proving that some things never change); but I love it for its simplicity.
So, take a little time to reflect upon your blessings this Thanksgiving … and “give thanks” for them. If you seriously can’t think of a single blessing … perhaps you should give thanks for the fact that, by your own definition, your life can only improve. For those of you who have less trouble identifying your areas of good fortune, please “give thanks” … and hope that the same grace might be shared by others.
And for those of you who ask, “give thanks to whom?” … I really don’t care. Most people will “give thanks” to God. If that doesn’t suit your set of beliefs, then “give thanks” to the universe … or nature … or your pet rock … or cell phone. You’ll have accomplished two things: first, you’ll have taken time to reflect upon your life and to put it into a positive perspective; and second, you have acknowledged that you are not alone in this world. How hard can it be, I had enough common sense as a child to figure it out … just from the name.
So, Happy Thanksgiving to you … and please know that I count you among my blessings!
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Copyright © 2010 T.J. O’Hara. To support viral distribution, this article may be copied, reprinted, forwarded, linked, or published in any form as long as proper attribution is given to the author and no changes are made.
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