Giving thanks

Football, Parades, button-front pants. I'm sure this isn't what the pilgrims had in mind. I'm also sure they had no idea that simply getting on a boat to get away from a England because it was "too loose" would cause such a mind-numbing frenzy of consumerism, feeding some primordial desire to get more stuff. It is ironic, if only a little, that the day after thanksgiving is marked by a nation-wide manhunt for the biggest and lowest deal, causing consumers to put themselves through tortures they would never normally put up with. Even still, something tells me that the very idea of thanksgiving was far from anything about a hundred sea-sick, starving people had on their minds.

But still, Thanksgiving is what it is. It is a day designed to say thank you for everything good that has happened to us this year. Thank you--it's a funny word isn't it? We aren't born knowing thank you; society has told us that we must be thankful for everything we get--whether we deserve it, have earned it, or if some cosmic probability pulled our number. Am I thankful? Absolutely. I am thankfull for my family who love and support me unconditionally. I am thankfull for my friends who are constantly at my side and at my back giving me a trusting place to fall. I am grateful that I am sitting comfortably in my home away from any real danger. I am thankfull I am not in Iraq, which saw one of the bloodiest days in the entire war yesterday.

I didn't ask for most of what I have in my life, but the truth is I am grateful. The truth of the matter is that we all understand gratitude, society teaches us how to express it--we just get so caught up in what we're excpected to do that we forget why we do it. Tomorrow, while you're shopping and someone holds the door for you say thank you. Then wonder why...