David Hruby, a teenage acquaintance of mine from Warroad, Minnesota, made the following statement. “I don’t think Thanksgiving will be around in 50 years because people are rushing Christmas. Right after Halloween people automatically go Christmas mode and Thanksgiving is becoming a smaller and smaller holiday. And add black Friday to the mix, stores are starting to open black Friday deals on Thanksgiving which means people are starting to spend their Thanksgiving shopping instead of being with family.”
David’s comments beg a few questions: What will change if the meaning of the holiday gradually disappears? Has the meaning already vanished? Will we start taking our blessings for granted? Has that already happened? In this time of pandemic, has gratitude increased for things like just being alive, freedom of movement, the option to simply be with friends? Or have fear, anger, and selfishness become the norm?
What exactly to be thankful for? We’re in luck and we have some help to answer that question. Last Thursday, a regular writer for the online New York Times, David Leonhardt, took the time to investigate what people are thankful for. The week before last, Mr. Leonhardt asked his readers to send him “six words describing what made them grateful in 2020.” He described it as “the six-word memoir,” and he credits writer Larry Smith for the exercise.
Mr. Leonhardt reported than about 10,000 readers replied, and he listed a selection of the responses. Below, I’ve selected from his selections. See what on the list strikes you. What categories do you notice? How many are related to the virus – or not? Where is fear hidden behind gratitude? Are you able to still enjoy the list’s intermittent humor?
No better excuse to avoid in-laws
Fell in love six feet apart.
Fell in love at age 75.
Aunt’s Jell-O salad not gonna happen.
Zoom Thanksgiving beats an ICU Christmas.
Democracy triumphed. Now pass the stuffing.
Once again, my Black vote matters.
Vaccine is coming, Trump is going.
The crinkling eye above the mask.
Got sober during 2020, stayed sober.
Wasn’t too late to say sorry.
Wildfires took much but we survived.
Biden won the election — thank God.
Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia.
Paris Climate Agreement returns in January.
The first female Vice President, baby.
To be a United States citizen.
Americans waited in line to vote.
Water cooler chats with six-year-old son.
Thankful for learning, in my pajamas.
Stole my car, not my books.
My wife gave me her kidney.
Healthcare workers. Healthcare workers. Healthcare workers.
Ambulance took him. He came home.
I held my dying husband’s hand.
So grateful to live in Canada.
Left US for science-believing Germany.
I am thankful for Pastor Bob.
I’m just thankful for indoor plumbing.
Sunny mornings, a window facing east.
My bicycle, the trail, each morning.
Windows have never been so important.
Toscanini’s recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
5329 games of solitaire, won 5286.
Still ridin’ my horse at seventy.
Postcards crossing the country — real mail.
The backyard haircuts are getting better.
Saved a lot of lipstick money.
No shame in elastic-waist pants.
Background
This year’s Thanksgiving holiday was different and dangerous. A paradox shadowed holiday cheeriness last week: Be grateful for the annual gathering? Stay away for fear of contagion? With trepidation, go to the celebration and hope everyone wears a mask and keeps social distance. Did you forego last Thursday’s holiday in the interest of staying healthy? Did you give in to your routine attachment to the gathering? Are you wearing a mask? Why? Are you not wearing a mask? Why? In the mix last week were two kinds of fear: fear of missing out, and fear of getting sick. This being true, these intertwined fears and attachments created a concoction of confusion much like auntie’s Lemon Jell-O Marshmallow Sour Cream Peanut Surprise. Care to have some?
Exploration 1: Is thankfulness a healthy practice, or does it have the tendency to increase our attachment and greed for persons, places, and things?
Exploration 2: Last week and now, did/do you say out loud or to yourself what you are grateful for? If you care to, and you have enough items, make a list, and put the items into two categories: what you are grateful to have, and what you are grateful you don’t have.
Exploration 3: What do you think of the NYT list? Do you have any common items? Any surprises? Any ideas for your own thankfulness?
ReplyDeleteThere’ll always be a Thanksgiving, Virginia. It’s a chance to catch our breath before shifting into high gear. A chance to loosen our belt as we move into full indulgence mode. The Holidays distract us from the nightmare of approaching winter. By the time the tree is put away, the days are getting longer. Maybe we can go to Disney World for a week in February. Well maybe next year.
Happy Holidays 🗿
Mr. Chairman, you are ever the optimist. This is one of your stellar traits. Could it be that your practice of staying in the present v. visions of the future is part of your success as an optimist? You mentioned this aspect of your worldview in one of our recent communications.
DeleteAs for winter being a "nightmare," in my contrarian way, I have to admit that I like winter, but ask me in January.
Is the icon that you end with an Easter Island statue? If so, it is a great symbol for present permanency, except that it is ancient (past), and probably will last a very long time (future).
The wife and I play Scrabble on days the coin-flip designates whether our daily game regimen is 'tails,' a card game, or 'heads,' a board game. Scrabble won; I did not, but that's besides the point. She suggested that, in honor of Gratitude Day, we should say what we were thankful for after each word we created; and so we did.
ReplyDeleteI didn't write them all down, but know that variations of our current comparatively good health was among the top five; and just being together, at times like these, vying for No. 1 and 2.
'Way down the list, at the end of the game, I said I was thankful that we were still friends and she had won the game. (It might've had something to do with it.) Whew!
Oh, yes! Ditto! Agreed! In accord! With gratitude for "comparatively good health." It was also on my list, including thankfulness for a minimal loss of cognitive capacities.
DeleteI'll send you my gratitude list privately and cc The Chairman. Cheers! Happy December!