Thanksgiving 08

by

Leo Crocker Rogers

But this year is different. Not that there is less gratitude, but the challenges have been horrendous.

I am thinking beyond the Pilgrims, those sleeping under a bridge, the turkey dinners being served to those who are in need. Those matters remain important. But there is more, much more this year.

National

When I think about our country at war in multiple lands and with soldiers so far away from home and the self-deception of US citizens believing that spending borrowed money is salvation, I am uneased.

International

When I think about the swings in money market funds and oil prices; Russia returning to dictatorial rule; Iceland going bankrupt; China spending more on the Olympics than helping their citizens; countries getting closer and closer to having atomic bombs; countries trusting countries they should not trust; millions dying of starvation, in natural disasters, of disease; and that the issues of religion are war-like instead of healing, I am not grateful.

Thanksgiving

In light of the above, this Thanksgiving, I need to think beyond the news and the human efforts to think of what is right and wrong; beyond Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, the U.S.A.; beyond 401Ks, leveraged borrowing/lending, and $4.00 gasoline or even $1.75 per gallon gasoline.

Of necessity, I must take enough steps up the ladder of humanity to touch the fringes of the divine. No one is grateful for personal, national, nor international tragedy. Even terrorists do what they do to preclude human tragedy as they see it. Tragedy is not a path to God in any religion.

Divine

It seems to me that giving thanks can only be for the divine, as the human comes and goes as the flowers bloom and die.

Gratitude is for life eternal as our life eternally is, for good done for no personal gain, for sacrifice with joy, for courage to hug our enemies at home, nationally, and internationally.

Gratitude is for divine guidance in human affairs, for inspiration more than reason, for our thought being so full of love that there is no room for even the taint of hate, revenge, or ill will. Gratitude is to acknowledge that love fills the hearts of all.

Can love conquer all? It is the only choice. War certainly cannot no matter how reasoned.

At Thanksgiving and Christmas some of us cry. Let the tears be tears of commitment, of honor, of resolve to make this coming year a better year.

All, categorically all, blessings are from the divine. Look we no other place to bestow our Thanks-Giving.