And so another Thanksgiving day arrives. It feels to me that, as a nation, as a world, we are in times of deep transition. We are no longer who we perceived we were and we are struggling for a vision of who we might become, who we are being called to be. Some of the brightest among us, those whom we have entrusted with our votes and leadership,behave more like children on a playground tousling over a toy, but the toys they play with are people’s lives. In our churches, we wrestle with how to be the people shaped by sacred stories handed down to us by people who seemed to understand them in ways that seem foreign to us. And because we live in the midst of the Technological Revolution we know more quickly, have more information about all this than any time in history.
In this morning’s Minneapolis Star Tribune, the editorial was reprinted from one written in 1968. The assertion was that many of the events happening in that turbulent year mirrors the times in which we find ourselves. I thought back to that year. I was an impressionable, passionate adolescent filled with a heart for justice and active for peace. It was a time I tangled with my parents more than any other time in my life, mostly over political issues. This morning my heart softened toward those loving people who allowed me my spirited way of being in the world. Their ages allowed them to see my passion with wisdom I did not understand in a way I do now. They had lived long enough to know that life is complicated, that no one person or political party has all the right answers, that a pendulum swings in how we make our life together, sometimes toward our shadow side but most often toward the greater good. I give thanks for this and for them.
I heard someone this week say that Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday because it comes with so few expectations. We gather round a table, share thanks for the food we have, enjoy that food, clean up and go home. I suppose in some ways that is true. But this year in particular, I am thinking of those who find it difficult to conjure up their thanks for any number of reasons. And to those who find it difficult to figure out to whom or what they are offering that thanks.
I won’t be so presumptuous as to offer any suggestions for either of these dilemmas.
I will, however, say that I believe it is an important part of being human to do so. Saying thanks reminds us that none of us made it here on our own power. People, our parents and others,sacrificed for our very existence and continue to do so in ways known and unknown to us. If we eat, others worked to provide our food,animals and plants gave their lives. If we breathe, the trees around help create the oxygen that fills our lungs. Those three things alone should get us started on the Thank-you Train. You can fill in your own additions for the ways your living is provided by others. Saying thank you is good for those who deserve our gratitude and for us. It has been scientifically proven that our thoughts and words of gratitude contribute to our overall health.
On this Thanksgiving Day, I am grateful for so much and will offer my thanks to those with whom I come into contact this day. But I want to offer my gratitude to all of you who continue to read my thoughts and to those of you who offer your comments. It is a great gift to me and encourages me to continue to mine the places and experiences I have daily as I keep myself open to the movement of the Holy.
Today I offer this poem by W.S. Merwin entitled ‘Listen’ as a testament to Thanksgiving 2011:
Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions
back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you
over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you
with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster and faster then the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is