Happy Thanksgiving

My direct ancestors were there for the first Thanksgiving. I am a descendant of William Brewster, who was known as Elder Brewster that sailed on the Mayflower and was known in Plymouth as a leader and “a source of indomitable” strength. His picture hangs proudly today in the Rotunda of the Capital Building in Washington DC.

That first Thanksgiving was nothing like what we celebrate today, except that it was centered around a feast of food. The first winter of the Pilgrim settlement was a filled with hardship, disease and death. In fact, the Pilgrim’s lost almost half of their residents the first winter they lived in the New World. Their existence was precarious, at best, but they were forming allegiances with the Indians and the men that remained healthy were building homes and buildings and learning about the various food sources. They remained true to their faith in God that they would survive as a colony, and wisely, rather than stand on their own individual Puritanism, reached out to the Indians as sources of wisdom and to form allegiances to protect them from other warring factions of Indians for even in the earliest of times, the New World was not without its politics.

Thanksgiving marked the end of a remarkable year. The pilgrims had arrived 11 months earlier in Cape Cod completely unaware of what they would encounter. Most historians agree that they should not have emerged from that first winter alive. They started out disagreeing with the Indians and were lucky they were not all taken captive like the French who had arrived before them. But they learned to reach out and understand that these “savages” were human beings, not much different from them and according to Edward Winslow, one of the men who documented those early days, they were “trustworthy, quick of apprehension, ripe witted and just.”

And so should we return to that era of tolerance of others. As we enter this holiday season I am struck by what should be, not what is. Reading the ads for the sales on Black Friday remind me of our great love for commercialism, rather than our love for the simple things that grace our lives everyday. When I read of people getting trampled or pushed aside for a doorbuster sale, it saddens me for what our people have become and makes me embarrassed for our country. Do they trample people in other countries for a great sale on a TV? I went shopping on Black Friday once, and people are so rude and the holiday spirit is no where to be found. It is a sorry and sad state of affairs.

Perhaps we could take a moment to return to the Old World. That first Thanksgiving was filled with tolerance, love and hope for a better year ahead. Everyone brought what they could and shared what they had. The whites in their puritan pilgrim attire, squatted side by side with the naked savages and partook in a meal and engaged in conversation. I don’t see it documented, but I am sure there was much laughter and joy.

So what are you joyful about today? What makes you grateful to be alive? What is your hope for the future? Find the time to love your family today, your friends, and laugh with abundant joy for all that your world has to offer. We have so much abundance, and yet we long for more. Let’s stand back for a moment and survey all the wondrous bounty that beholds us every day, and let’s be thankful.