Twenty years ago, I remember reading a Thanksgiving article in Time Magazine. It was addressing the first Thanksgiving months after September 11. The article was so impactful that I saved the magazine and pulled it out this week to read it once again. I found that there are many parallels between where we are today and where we were two decades ago. Whether coming out of 9/11 or Covid there is a paradox that faces us all.
“It’s an ordeal to travel and yet we do; family reunions can be wildly stressful and yet painful to miss. It was invented by a bunch of Puritans who celebrated freedom by throwing a party, and so bequeathed us a holiday both secular and sacred, with parades and prayers that dare us to reckon with all that has changed, and recognize all that has not… The first Thanksgiving in 1621 was born in paradox. About half of the 102 people who traveled from England to America died before summer. Yet after that first fall harvest about 50 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans chose to give thanks. This is the kind of holiday we need right now, a holiday of paradox that comes at the end of a bitter harvest and yet finds something sweet to celebrate.”No matter the day, the year or the decade, may the Lord grant us a thankful spirit that always finds something sweet to celebrate. Happy Thanksgiving!
