What are you really Thankful for?

Thanksgiving.  Happy Thanksgiving.  I'm seeing it a lot today, but have you ever really thought about what you are really thankful for?  I mean besides the most obvious--family, friends, good health, et cetera.  We all have a lot of things that we are thankful for.  But very few of us have really thought about what we are deeply thankful for.  I know, when you read this, you think to yourself like I do, I know what I'm thankful for.  I'm thankful for my boys, for my life, for good friends...But what are we really thankful for?

There's a deeper meaning and lesson to Thanksgiving.  Sure most of us easily picture the first Thanksgiving meal as a friendly meal between the pilgrims and the natives.  Most know that it's because the natives assisted the Pilgrims in growing and cultivating their own food and helping them learn the land.  It's all very simple, right?  Did you know that the Pilgrims were not "Puritans"?  Did you know that the religious zealots that we now know as the Puritans came over after and that less than 25 years later had started a war with the native tribes in the area and were enslaving the natives?  The Pilgrims were separatists--wanting religious freedom from the Church of England.  The Puritans were religious zealots that wanted to impose their religion on others and viewed anyone not practicing their religion as "less" than them and damned.  That Thanksgiving dinner that all of us are taught in school did actually happen.  Between the Pilgrims and the Natives.  And the religious zealots came and ruined that with their extremism in less than 25 years.

Now, think about that this Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving was a day that people of different views, different races and different religious beliefs, came together to appreciate that they were able to work together and learn from each other.  It didn't take long for extremists to come along and ruin everything that they worked for.  What do we have to be thankful for?  We have so much more to be thankful for than just family and friends.  We have all kinds of amazing things in this beautiful country of ours to give thanks for.  We have religious freedom in spite of the Puritan zealots almost ruining it before the country even became colonies.  We have rights that people in other countries can only dream of.  We live however we choose as long as we do no harm to others.  We have the right to speak our opinions without fear of the state coming and arresting us.  We do not have a debtors prison which was common place in Europe only a couple hundred years ago.

I know--that's too deep for Thanksgiving, right?  Yet, that is what Thanksgiving is actually for.  We turned it into a "family" thing and somehow in the midst of that forgot what we are actually supposed to be thankful for.  Thanksgiving is an American holiday--we are supposed to be on this day--thankful for the country that blossomed in spite of severe adversity by the grace and the unity of a the Natives and the Pilgrims that day started what would eventually become this beautiful country.  Sure, be thankful for your family, your friends, the turkey on the table as they were that day.  I'm thankful for my boys, my friends, and all kinds of little things that apply to me only.  But don't forget that this holiday is an American, exclusively American holiday.  A day not just to be thankful for all the people sitting around the table with us, but all that makes America great.  Happy Thanksgiving and everything that it stands for.