Happy Thanksgiving…ANYWAY!

I enjoy Thanksgiving – not more, but in a different way than I do Christmas.

Thanksgiving has no general, overarching religious emphasis attached to it, although I have grown increasingly nostalgic for the days when my grandparents were living. Because my grandfather was our pastor and we had fellowship services with about four other churches, even Thanksgiving became a day of nearly all day church! Still, it was a day to see family, enjoy a delicious meal and, of course, football!

This year, I can understand those who may not be grateful, or who struggle to find something for which to express gratitude!

Twelve million Americans infected with a disease, from which more than 255,000 thousand have died!

We have developed vaccines and therapeutics for which we have no clear understanding on how or when they will be distributed

Seven million Americans are unemployed

Our government is MIA: the US Senate has gone home – and the President has gone golfing

Our legally elected President-elect, is forming a near shadow government vs. a government in waiting because the current defeated occupant of the White House, won’t admit defeat or concede, although he lost the election by almost 7 million votes!

So with all of these tragic headlines, why should we be ‘thankful’?!

Here’s a short list – a very short list:

We can be thankful for every health care worker, putting their lives on the line (not to mention their mental and emotional health) caring for those who are ill, the dead and the dying. Long years ago, I worked at a hospital. I know that people in this profession are amazing individuals who have dedicated their lives to caring for others. Their heroism, particularly in the midst of this pandemic, should be a cause for gratitude. Particularly, now when its coming to light, that many of them are tending to severely ill and dying patients who are cursing them and declaring that their COVID diagnosis was a lie and a hoax! I thank God for their example!

We should be thankful for the many, many volunteers who are serving others during this time of food insecurity and hunger. They provide boxes of food for literally millions of people across this nation who, in so many cases, not only don’t know where their next meal is coming from, they NEVER thought they would be in this position. I remember, when I started working at a direct service nonprofit, that has one of the most effective food pantries in Dallas. We had critics of our work, who talked about how lazy the poor were, and how they should have been more thrifty and saved their money against lean times. They would say, that these people shouldn’t have had so many children, or give up some of their ‘habits’ like smoking, drinking or drugs. I often wonder, how many of them, are now one of those thousands of cars lined up for free food. The volunteers in these lines, aren’t asking, how many children the people they’re serving have; whether or not they saved their money, or how hard have they looked for a job. These are volunteers pretty much like those with whom I have worked for 15 years, who are committed to doing the best they can for to make sure their neighbors don’t go hungry…thank God for their example! They are truly among the best of us!

Let’s be thankful for our lives! Let me confess, that there were times when I was much younger that I somewhat cynically thought of thankfulness for life and health, as poor consolation prizes. I have to ask to be forgiven for that. Maybe its my years, but I’ve come to see how important, how much good fortune it takes and how great a blessing it is to be simply be alive and in good (or reasonably good) health. I’ve lost any number of friends, to the COVID and other diseases, this year. Some who have had the same comorbidities from which I suffer. I am indeed, grateful to be alive.

We need to be thankful for our friends and relatives. Our loved ones strengthen our lives and give us continued hope and joy. Both those in the generations older than us and younger than we are, give us perspective. We learn from them, what’s important. We see in their lives, the tremendous wonder of live, itself – not just wonder of the length of life, but its breadth and depth as well. I’m sincerely grateful for my wife, my brother, my mom, a my children and grandchildren, my last remaining Aunt and all of my cousins and friends who grace my life! Whether your family is larger, or smaller than mine, I hope you experience the same warm gratitude for them that I feel when I see, or even thank about mine!

We should be thankful for our democratic processes – they one institutional system (along with the federal judiciary…for the time being) that has held – and I believe will hold – as the hedge against existential threats to our way of life. On January 20, 2021, at 12 noon, if not before, we will actually see that our democracy works, our Constitution is valid, that we are a country ruled by the will of the people and not be the dictates of a would be autocrat and his cronies – and our second, long national nightmare finally be OVER! We can be thankful for that!

Listen: our larger problems will not end on January 20th, at 12:01. We will still have racial tensions. Poverty and unemployment, gender inequality will not end then. Our economy will still likely be in shambles. More people will die in this awful pandemic and will for some time after. BUT, we will actually start working on them. We will actually have competence in our government and a platform from which, hardworking Americans of goodwill will be work on these issues in a country in which are norms and values will return to some sense of normalcy.

And DECENCY will return to the Oval Office!

This Thanksgiving, there will be people missing from around our table; many of us will be unable to have some of our favorite relatives will not be visiting this year; some of us may have to have ZOOM conferences with these relatives and friends. But we will have hope that next year things will be different. We can be thankful that this year we can have hope!

Happy Thanksgiving…and God’s Blessings be upon you all!