Thanksgiving seems to have evolved to become yet another venue of competition rather than a moment to give thanks. I wonder if it is a cultural thing– we are not just overweight, we are obese, and have reality television shows to help us shed hundreds of pounds. We don’t do yoga as the yogis intended, we do it as hot, among other things, and we compete with our neighbors in frequency, poses and attire.
The holiday honoring the Pilgrims’ survival has lost ground to food hedonism and football games, but more to what used to come immediately after: Black Friday. Black Friday now generally starts on Thanksgiving Thursday, and the Christmas season itself can begin anytime after the fall solstice.
In a culture of Facebook, where we post our fantastic family, friend and vacation photos and don’t mention the other, less picture-perfect stuff, people now can offer up what they are thankful for right and left throughout social media. In theory, this is all good. But in practice– well, a good deal of it tries the soul. With a few exceptions it is really about people’s own perceived specialness. It’s one more way the human need to strut and posture can be falsely presented, this time in the sheep’s clothing of terms like Gratitude and What I’m Thankful For.
Would it be anachronistic to yearn to return to a day when we gave thanks with our family, friends, and neighbors, at home and maybe in church, a bit more quietly, and humbly.
Perhaps then the tone for the season that follows hard on this holiday’s heels would begin to shift, as well. Rather than the me culture of rushing around to stores to buy and then give stuff, stuff, and more stuff, maybe we could, ah, give of ourselves, our hearts. Really. Maybe the gift could be about…well, giving love. Novel idea, huh? And seems no exchange of money is needed for that.