Comments on: Thanksgiving break and thoughts

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:29:25 +0000

I should add, here’s the cue for Just Another Liberal Professor to show up and give atheists a bad name by saying something asinine.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:28:54 +0000

@tODD: I’ve seen atheist/rationalist formulations of Thanksgiving where we are supposed to give thanks to the scientists to discovered how to make sure the turkeys are safe to eat, the engineers who invented the refrigerator and the gas range, the farmers who grow the corn, and so on. I mean, yes, we are all thankful for these people and the things they do. But doesn’t it seem a little shallow? To whom should the farmers give thanks?

By: tODD

tODD — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:20:27 +0000

Agreed that Thanksgiving is the better of the two holidays, at least as seen in the secular culture — and thus why it is ignored. It’s harder to capitalize (literally) on it, unless you’re Butterball. And I say this as a marketer whose most recent email totally skipped over Thanksgiving. I blame the zeitgeist?

Still, I wonder if our culture struggles with Thanksgiving because you have to be thankful to someone, really. I mean, you can be thankful in general, sure, for a time. But if you don’t think there’s anyone in particular to thank for all you have, if you think it’s all random chance, then I wonder if eventually it seems silly to thank … the universe? You’re lucky, perhaps, but not blessed. Just thinking.

By: Thom

Thom — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:19:14 +0000

A former rector of our church empasized one of his recurring themes by saying “Everything we have is a gift from God.” I may be reading too much into it, but over the years I have found much wisdom in that simple sentence: thankfulness; humility; and the universality of God. I find it particularly useful in the context you are citing.

Thank YOU for sharing your thoughts, feelings and observations with us for so long. And good luck and God bless your whole family with Harrison’s arrival!