Happy Thanksgiving Day or Thanksgiving Weekend to all; we usually have the Friday off also making a great weekend to work or relax – I do both. Had a great meal as always, love that turkey, mashed potatoes and especially the gravy! It’s great to have the family around on yet another “traditional” holiday.
We have a lot to be “thankful” for; many have a lot less than we do and I mean not only money and possessions but also basic “happiness”.
My wife uncharacteristically, offered a “grace” before the Thanksgiving meal. She offered thanks for our family’s health and well being and wished for the safe-keeping of our troops fighting in a war no one believes in.
After the dinner I asked to whom was she praying if it was that what she was doing or was she just thanking someone, but whom? She merely said she was addressing a higher power.
She is spiritual without being necessarily religious but the whole affair raised some interesting question(s): whom do you thank when you offer thanks for your happiness?
The Thanksgiving tradition is kind of muddled but we are taught that it celebrated the Pilgrim’s first harvest in the New World and now we celebrate all our harvests since then. Others point to Lincoln’s proclamation of having a national Thanksgiving Day after the Battle of Gettysburg for victory or something else? Anyway, it was definitely intended to thank a god or some supernatural being.
So whom do secularists thank for their well being, themselves? That seems kind of inane!
If you were a secular farmer with a great harvest you couldn’t just thank yourself since a good harvest also depends on the weather and other factors that you do not control. Would you thank Mother Nature or just your very good luck?
My point is that you can definitely just celebrate your good fortune on Thanksgiving Day without thanking anybody or any thing but I feel we humans have a certain “need” to thank a higher power that we “feel” must be somehow involved in the higher scheme of things even if we have no possible idea how or maybe eating too much turkey affects the brain in silly ways.
We have a lot to be “thankful” for; many have a lot less than we do and I mean not only money and possessions but also basic “happiness”.
My wife uncharacteristically, offered a “grace” before the Thanksgiving meal. She offered thanks for our family’s health and well being and wished for the safe-keeping of our troops fighting in a war no one believes in.
After the dinner I asked to whom was she praying if it was that what she was doing or was she just thanking someone, but whom? She merely said she was addressing a higher power.
She is spiritual without being necessarily religious but the whole affair raised some interesting question(s): whom do you thank when you offer thanks for your happiness?
The Thanksgiving tradition is kind of muddled but we are taught that it celebrated the Pilgrim’s first harvest in the New World and now we celebrate all our harvests since then. Others point to Lincoln’s proclamation of having a national Thanksgiving Day after the Battle of Gettysburg for victory or something else? Anyway, it was definitely intended to thank a god or some supernatural being.
So whom do secularists thank for their well being, themselves? That seems kind of inane!
If you were a secular farmer with a great harvest you couldn’t just thank yourself since a good harvest also depends on the weather and other factors that you do not control. Would you thank Mother Nature or just your very good luck?
My point is that you can definitely just celebrate your good fortune on Thanksgiving Day without thanking anybody or any thing but I feel we humans have a certain “need” to thank a higher power that we “feel” must be somehow involved in the higher scheme of things even if we have no possible idea how or maybe eating too much turkey affects the brain in silly ways.
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