Thanksgiving

Two weeks ago, I happened to walk through the local shopping mall. In the middle of the food court, amidst a lavishly decorated set, sat Santa, in all his red-velvet-clad chubbiness. I could have had my photo taken with him right there and then. In the first week of November! Not to put too fine a point on it, that bothered me. Not because it was a symbol of the onslaught of holiday shopping that arrives earlier and earlier every year – that's not news. What I find regrettable is that this kind of thing causes us to gloss over Thanksgiving. And Thanksgiving is important to us, both as individuals and as a society.

The vast majority of us have something to be thankful for every year, even if sometimes, in times of despair or misfortune, we do not feel that way. I myself can rattle off a bunch off the top of my head, from the utterly trivial (owning a relatively nice, very reliable car), to the mundane but important (having a well-paying job), to the truly transcendent (J.; being able to live in the US). I don't want to moralize, but pausing every once in a while to contemplate them, even if for a second, helps us appreciate them a little more, and take them for granted a little less, making us, in some small way, kinder, gentler, more giving and less selfish persons. And the Thanksgiving celebration provides a perfect opportunity to do just that, hopefully surrounded by those you love.

For society as a whole, Thanksgiving is hugely symbolic. First of all, we have a society. One that functions, most of time, politically, socially and economically. Even acknowledging all the problems and frustrations, some of which can seem overwhelming sometimes, we have rights, we have privileges, we have institutions that can be expected to work in more or less reasonable, or at least predictable, ways. That's more than can be said for many people elsewhere in this world. And for that, we should all be thankful. In addition, the Thanksgiving tradition, however mythologized it might have become since the 1600s, gives us an appreciation of our own history. It is a reminder of what those who came before us had to go through to ensure that we have what we do today. Pausing to remember that is a small token of appreciation, however abstract, that we should not neglect. A part of that history, even if we don't have any firm evidence, is the idea that sometimes, people are driven to help strangers simply by seeing them in unfortunate circumstances, the idea that cooperation, sharing and community are possible, occasionally even between those who would later become the conquerors and the vanquished.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.