Ever since I came of age, Thanksgiving has been one of my favorite holidays. At first, it was for the food and fellowship. Here was a holiday to which we invited a few good friends to share some delectable food and drink. Since I have a special interest in wine, I always try to include at least a couple people who know what (e.g.) Bollinger récemment dégorgé is and why it is superior to (e.g.) Lanson or Cold Duck (remember that?). Continuing with the wine theme, Thanksgiving is one of a handful of yearly occasions in which we indulge in vintage port, and it is nice to have at least one or two people on hand who enjoy the stuff and understand that it is different from (e.g.) that horrible Bailey’s concoction.
Beyond the pleasures of the table, however — pleasures, I should note, that conspicuously include conversation as well as caloric intake — Thanksgiving has become a favorite holiday for other reasons. For the last decade or so, we have begun our Thanksgiving and Easter celebrations with an informal musicale. One or two of our guests play a couple of short pieces on the piano or harpsichord, as does my wife. I do not play myself, but my wife occasionally conspires to find a piece that is within my competence, e.g., the left-hand part of the Polka Stravinsky wrote for his friend Sergei Diaghilev and himself (my part was just “plonk, plonk”). Sometimes we include a group effort of something like Ernst Toch’s Geographical Fugue, always a crowd pleaser. And as the children get older, they have taken to reciting some short poem (last year James, aetat 12, declaimed “The Charge of the Light Brigade”).
The music and recitation only takes fifteen or twenty minutes, but we find it a jolly praeludium. Perhaps the deepest pleasure I take in Thanksgiving, however, has to do with the first syllable of the name of the holiday: “thanks.” I am fond of observing that Aristotle may or may not have been correct that man is the rational animal, but he would certainly have been correct had he said man was the ungrateful animal. That is particularly true for those of us who have most to be grateful for, those, I mean, who have been lucky enough in the lottery of life to have been born in the United States in the last century. What ever slings and arrows they may have to contend with — and we all have some — they were born into the richest, the mightiest, and most secure polity in the history of the world. It is still, despite some significant erosions, among the most free as well. Yes, yes: Obama and his regiment of “expert” bureaucrats aim to change all that, but they haven’t quite managed that, not yet, and I have my doubts that they ever will.
The curious thing is that my pause for gratitude is a fairly recent phenomenon: I don’t think I went in for it much before a decade ago. That was about the same time that I started paying attention to other quotidian miracles, e.g., the blooming of flowers in spring time. I always approved of flowers, more or less, but it was only a decade or so ago that I began remarking their special poignancy: such extreme, delicate beauty tightly bound up with evanescence. You didn’t get one without the other.
Very well said, Roger — especially the “attitude of gratitude” part!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Happy eudaimonia day, Roger!
Lovely piece.
Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours.
Happy Thanksgiving to you, Mr. Kimball!
As an immigrant, it seems that people don’t have a sense what the United States means to people in foreign lands. So much is taken for granted. Appreciate the place. Appreciate the people. Appreciate the symbols. This country is one of the
great invention in the history of mankind. There so much to be thankful for.
A Happy Thanks giving to all. Enjoy.
One of the most thoughtful commentators on the current scene, Dennis Prager, has a great essay on the Prager University area of his web site. he points out that gratitude is the key to happiness, and that the rampant ingratitude and victimology in our current society lead only to unhappiness. One striking thing he says is that on a planet with billions of humans, the number of ungrateful, happy people is zero.
Wonderfully put!
Rasmussen reports today that 83% of Americans feel they “have a lot to be thankful for.” I find that encouraging.
Back on Thanksgiving, 1988, I wrote as follows:
THANKSGIVING
For hills
for trees and shadows
for all streams
For fish, for insect life
And for the sea
clouds scattering light
For air
For paths
that fade, to lose us
for the stars, for night
For children, for old people
For the wind
for salt marsh grasses—
for the sand the wind
and water move
For all that lives, and
for the sun and moon
To God, we give
our thanks
Beautiful column. Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving to you and all whom you love !
And Happy Thanksgiving to all the Authors at PJMedia, and to all the Readers !
Perhaps we can someday refer to ourselves immodestly as living in the thanksgiving belt.
With that in mind, I recommend a book exhaustively researched as to the charity of United States citizens. It’s called “Who Really Cares” by Arthur C. Brooks, Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group.
Mr. Brooks has done his homework, all the numbers about who is charitable, and how they shows it.
http://www.amazon.com/Who-Really-Cares-Compassionate-Conservatism/dp/0465008232/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322158681&sr=1-1
The U.S. is the most prosperous nation in history, as well as the most generous nation in history, bar none.
For me, Thanksgiving is now above all an occasion for gratitude: for friends and family, for my extraordinary good fortune in having been born where and when I was, with abundant opportunity to act in a way that Aristotle described as the formula for eudaimonia, for human happiness, i.e., the free exercise of one’s faculties and talents, whatever they may be. Writing and posting my thoughts on different topics provides an opportunity not only to express my own gratitude for the favors Providence has bestowed, but also to thank you my fellow posters.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I am deeply grateful and give thanks that our Most Wonderful G-D, Creator of the Universe, is the absolute opposite of the god of Islam.
Our loving Heavenly Father, Master of the Universe, is loving, kind, merciful, compassionate and forgiving.
G-D’s Biblical requirement for ALL humanity is KINDNESS:
Bible, Micah 6:8 And what does the L-RD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-D.
Happy Thanksgiving to all PJ readers and writers!
Terrific! On this Thanksgiving, I am most thankful for my parents and grandparents, whose love and support have seen me through my most difficult times. I remain optimistic about our country’s future and the economic recovery after the current occupier of the White House has decamped. Happy Thanksgiving to all, especially our military and their families.
My mother always had copies of Norman Rockwell’s depictions of Americana hung on our walls or tucked away in a large trunk. As the Depression unfolded and later, during the height and close of WWII, our family traveled far and wide to make ends meet and survive. Thanksgiving was her favorite.
Always, those pictures would accompany us on our several destinations and opportunely be pulled out from their safe resting places to serve as a guiding “light on the hill.” God Bless America.
Dear Mr. Kimball. I was enthralled by your description of your Thanksgiving Day family tradition of epicurean delights such a fine table wines, vintage ports (no doubt with stilton cheese and marcona almonds), a few numbers on the harpsichord and recitations of classics. But “The Charge of the Light Brigade!” A Crimean War poem celebrating the mindless suicide of Imperial cavalry at the command of brainless Generals safe behind the artillery lines!! Dear God! Somebody in the USA in the twenty-first century is teaching a kid to memorize that antique British ballad? It all sounds so terribly Upper Crust Victorian English, though warmly nostalgic to my Canadian-born ears.
I share your depth of feeling of increased awareness of the beauty of the world we live in and our good fortune at living at this time in this place. Just last week I a visited an aquarium, and looking at the incredible detail and glorious color of the tiny fish, sea anemones and delicate jelly fish could only wonder how anyone could question the existence of a God or fail to find joy in the world around us, or not see hope for the future. Thank you for your eloquent reminder.
President downgrade, our Vacationer in Chief, King Putt, number One on the Gravy Train has apparently released the traditional White House Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, but one in which there are no religious references and no mention of God at all (http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/obama-leaves-god-out-of-thanksgiving-address.html). This comes on the heels of his failure to even issue an Easter Proclamation (http://lonelyconservative.com/2011/04/no-easter-proclamation-from-obama/).
I note, however, that he has issued fulsome Proclamations on all the major and some minor Muslim holidays.
Draw your own conclusions.
I read of an essay being assigned on the seven wonders of the world. One student had never heard of this as a listing of architectural marvels, and wrote a completely original and compelling essay. She wrote of the wonders of sight and hearing and love; I don’t know all seven wonders she chose.
What is worship? It is an attraction to whatever inspires awe, it happens spontaneously and authentically. Let us give thanks.
Poetry has to catch the imagination of youngsters. We can’t expect the boy to declaim “Thanatopsis”, can we? However, a poem can be too long, like “The Battle of Otterburn” or “Chevy Chase”. Here are the closing lines of the latter: “God save our king, and bless this land/ With plentye, joy, and peace,/ And grant henceforth that foule debate/ twixt noble men may ceaze!” Even so.
Cold Duck? Do I remember Cold Duck? I still have a headache from Cold Duck.