Thoughts on Thanksgiving

 

— In MithrilStar@yahoogroups.com, Savhbh <articw@…> wrote:

>

> That’s right its a Christian holiday. Pilgrims were/are Christian and I do not celebrate Christianity nor do I worship its Religion.

>

 

Oh, I don’t know.  Remember now that I grew up in a household where dad was Catholic and mom was Jewish, and I had friends from both St. Patrick’s and Temple B’nai Israel.  I recall that Thanksgiving was celebrated by all my friends families, not just the Xtian ones. Across the street there were Unitarians (who aren’t exactly Xtian by any stretch of the imagination) and they celebrated Thanksgiving. And down the street were the Websters, and they were atheists. Mrs. Webster sure had her way with a turkey though.  Granted, there were no Pagans, or Buddhists or Moslems (that we knew about any way) in 1970’s Kankakee Illinois, and like many communities, Kankakee was predominantly Xtian, with Catholics and Nazarenes leading the denominational pack.

 

I live in Eureka California now, and we have all those religions here, plus a few even I (with my minor in comparative religions) have never heard of before.  And guess what: they all, every last one of them, every single sect and cult, celebrate Thanksgiving (though the Buddhists like those Tofurkey things).

 

So, is it really a Xtian holiday?  Sure it was started by Xtians — that’s just a fact. But Ben Franklin was not a Xtian, and he thought is was cool (he also thought the turkey, rather than the eagle, should be our national bird. Connections?).

 

Thanksgiving is the one holiday when all the different faiths, put down their differences and pick up a fork.  It’s the one time when we all temporarily forget who’s right and who’s not and who thinks they are, and we give thanks as a nation to whomever we each think god or the gods are.

 

Like it or not, if “Thou art God”  be the truth then it’s not just you and me that is God — the Xtians and the Moslems and the Buddhists and even Dick Cheney — we’re all God, we’re all part of the big batch of soup labeled GOD, and the differences in taste we might experience are more our own personal opinion or point of view then they are any basis in reality.

 

The thing I’m most thankful for: I know that I am part of the God Collective. So very many don’t, and for that Gaia suffers.

Posted:  2006 November 26