Not The Thanksgiving You Were Looking For

Last updated on: November 27, 2014 at 8:49 am by Sterling

Not The Thanksgiving You Were Looking For 2014-11-27T08:49:00+00:00 Sterling

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A couple nights ago I lay in bed not quite falling asleep while thinking about the just-announced grand jury decision in the Michael Brown killing in Ferguson, MO and I decided that I needed to write a Thanksgiving post with all the things that you can’t really say you are thankful for because they are horrible. But even as I made my list, I worried that some people would just read the horrible parts and not process the reasons or the message underneath. (I’m thankful that I’m white. It makes my life so much easier than that of my two Latino offspring — one of whom experienced police harassment and a $300 citation a couple of years ago while just sitting in his car in a completely legal parking space. I was able to get the ticket thrown out for him in court, but we all know that cop is still harassing other brown folks and getting paid for it.) And then I saw a short video on YouTube, and I knew that someone had already written the message I intended to express about this holiday.

I am a grateful person. Being thankful is part of my daily practice, and something that I believe makes the world a better place. Giving thanks brings peace as we recognize what we have and settle into a sense of security and abundance instead of focusing on the things that we don’t have and the fears that come with that. And maybe being sideways thankful — saying “thank you” for things that are really a part of the system of injustice we live in — isn’t that helpful for creating peace, but right now I feel like the world needs more accountability on the part of the privileged.

We who have privilege must recognize it if we are to enable a society that values and promotes human rights for everyone. If we don’t recognize the extra bonuses we get just for being a certain color or a certain gender or having a certain kind of education, then we can’t really address that inequality. If we don’t stop for a moment to say thanks for the horrible bonuses that we got through no fault of our own, I’m not sure that we can find the courage to let go of those privileges and share the playing field equally with everyone else.

I am horrified that land was taken away from people so that my ancestors could start their farms and businesses, but I’m grateful that I live on that land today. These two things set up a cognitive dissonance that we nearly always shy away from.

I’m horrified that some people had to work for a fraction of the wage that my great-grandfather did on major construction jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area back in the 20’s and 30’s just because he could “pass” for white even if his bloodline wasn’t so “pure”, but I’m grateful that he had a job and did so well for his family. In injustice there is a prize for someone.

It doesn’t have to be like that, though. We talk about a myth of Thanksgiving in which the Natives and the European new comers sat and ate together as friends. It didn’t go quite that way, but the myth at least says something about our better nature. We want to have been better than we were. We want to believe that we are better than we are. And I, for one, want to believe that we can be better.

So today I’ll sit with friends, eat turkey and pumpkin pie, share some things I’m thankful for, and most importantly, I’ll commit myself to making the world a place where more people have more to be thankful for next year (and the year after that, and the year after that) than they do today.

Previous Post

November 12, 2014

When Technology Forces Us To Leave Space For Nature

Next Post

November 28, 2014 Ferguson is a Forest

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Africa Amazon Ancestors Animism Austin Boots Across Ireland Boston boundary crossing Bretagne Children Cities Community Connection Culture Detroit Druidry Earth Edinburgh Elements England Eskdalemuir Eugene experiential family Fiction Florida folklore France Glasgow Heathenry home how to build it Human Spaces imaginary landscapes Introduction Ireland Journeys Know your wild herbs Land Spirits London Maine memory lane Naturalizing Nature's Metaphors New York Poetry Remembering Ancestors Sacred Spaces San Francisco Scotland Seasons Seattle Tanzania Technology Texas the South Theory Top 10 traditions Travel Uncategorized United States video Water West Virginia Witchcraft Worlding

Select a Month August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was Paul’s profession before becoming an apostle?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Carpenter Tentmaker Fisherman Tax Collector