A Thanksgiving Day Lesson

Thanksgiving Day stands alone among American holidays. Its inspiration is timeless and universal and it lends itself to teaching across all curriculums and cultures. There’s nothing about that holiday that is irksome to anybody regardless of national, political, or religious ideology.  And its original meaning has not been eroded by entrepreneurs or braggarts of any stripe.

Unlike the Fourth of July it is not about simulating explosions that make paraplegics of unsuspecting pawns in geo-political gambits. It is not an implicit boast of national superiority. It differs from holidays whose conceit is based on religious exclusivity or narrow ancestral pride.

Thanksgiving Day has indeed retained its focus. By contrast, Veterans Day has become a set-aside day to pay tribute to department stores rather than the unsullied call to national service.  Memorial Day is solemnized by many folks as the precursor to the beach season. Labor Day, more than other holidays, should be like Thanksgiving Day because it too recognizes the dignity of human toil and the bonds among people who bring aspirations of the spirit to fruition. But Labor Day is observed mostly as a calendar bookend to Memorial Day. It means that the lifeguards have retired for the season.

Thanksgiving Day is about the cohesion of the nuclear family and the link to the whole genealogy of all the races. It is an unobtrusive, non-political, quiet and deep holiday. It is about “family values” in the sense of that term before it was polluted by reactionary misappropriation. New Years Day, by comparison, is associated with booze, shall indulgence, mere football and liver recovery.

Valentine’s Day has become an excuse for commercial exploitation. It is not about romantic passion or loyal tender love. It’s not even about Whitman’s Chocolate Samplers anymore. It’s about some guy on A.M. radio who’s got a prizefighter’s name and a dork’s voice who over and over offers you a one-time-only shot at having a star named for you. In exchange for a modest fee you get title to a piece of a constellation that maybe you can auction off on e-bay one day if the bailouts don’t work.  Maybe the same guy owns Halley’s Comet also.

Indeed only Thanksgiving Day has in recent generations retained its innocence. Groundhog Day and even Flag Day don’t exactly make the whole world kin. But one other holiday has this year reasserted its stature. Election Day was this year a reaffirmation of faith we can all live with.

To all our readers for whom alternate side street parking rule have ever been suspended: Happy Thanksgiving!

Tagged: civics, holidays

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