TO GIVE THANKS is an action that
arises from our ability as humans
to recognize the goodness and beauty in our lives, in our environments, in
others, in all that is, all that we have, and all that happens.
Celebrations in which we give thanks
have always been held in the most diverse communities,
eras and cultures throughout the history of humanity. Here, in the United States of
America, we have all grown up
knowing and celebrating the historic feat in which, in the
origins of this great Nation and specifically in the year 1623 in
Plymouth (in the present-day state of Massachusetts) a meeting and a
meal of thanksgiving took place for a good harvest. In the beginning, when the colony of Plymouth did
not have enough food to feed half of its 102 settlers, natives of the
Wampanoag tribe helped the pilgrims
by giving them seeds and teaching them how to fish. The
practice of carrying out a harvest festival did not become a regular tradition
in New England until the late 1660s.
This Nation then has, in its historical
foundations, a celebration of THANKSGIVING that has been commemorated from
generation to generation and that has become the most important annual holiday
for all American families.
It is a celebration, then, that commemorates
the historical deeds that gave rise to the Nation we inhabit, in which we live,
love, work, dream and hope. ... But it is, above all, a celebration - as its
name indicates – in which we thank, give thanks, learn to give thanks, give
thanks again. ...
Our current situation in society is defined
and conditioned by a culture in which one must have money to be part of the
world of the market, of the world of supply and demand, of materialism and
consumerism; a world where you have
what you buy, you have what you can have, what you deserve, what - through
your labor and economic effort - you
achieve and you get.
In this economistic vision of
the human being and of society, we are losing the
ability to perceive in daily human existence the gift of life; the value of what cannot be bought or sold is
lost; the value of intangibles like love, family, encounters, solidarity,
friendship, kindness, etc., is being replaced by the value of things and
objects, by tangibles, by the material and immediate, by the ephemeral, by
the disposable and temporary.
For this reason, THANKSGIVING DAY reminds us
again of the importance of gratitude in the life of the human being, the
urgency of being able to, again and every day, recognize the reasons we have to
give thanks and be happy. Because the man
who is able to give thanks is a happy man and he is happy when he is able to
find and recognize in life the reasons to be grateful.
But THANKSGIVING DAY is not just a day for
giving thanks. It must also be a day that
pushes us to build reasons to continue to be grateful and to give thanks. It must be a national holiday in which we all
commit ourselves to building a society in which we all have reasons to GIVE
THANKS. In other words, it must be a day
when there is not a single man or woman
in the United States who does not find or does not have
valid reasons to GIVE THANKS. And
this is only possible if we all build better
relationships, better family relationships, fairer economic
relationships, more supportive political relationships, more humane
cultural relationships, etc.
On this THANKSGIVING DAY 2018, I wish that all
of us have reasons to be grateful and that, amongst us, we build a Nation in
which during this holiday, this Nation’s principal event, all who live here can
celebrate with genuine reasons, and in fair, just, and humane conditions for
GIVING THANKS. Happy Thanksgiving!
