Thanksgiving: Gratitude is Happiness Doubled by Wonder.

By Greg Wilson

Editor/Publisher, The Anderson Obsever

With less than six weeks remaining in the tulmultuous year of 2020, we take time today to celebrate Thanksgiving, our uniquely American holiday.

Historians note it's a day we have marked in various forms on this continent since the late 1500s. 

The early Pilgrims marked days of thanksgiving first with days of prayer, but our national holiday really stems from the feast held in the autumn of 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag to celebrate the colony's first successful harvest.national holiday really stems from the feast held in the autumn of 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag to celebrate the colony's first successful harvest.

Abraham Lincoln finally made Thanksgiving an official holiday, to be celebrated on the third Thursday of November, while in the middle of the Civil War in 1863. His proclamation both reflected the long-observed intent of those who had gone before him as he wrote the holiday would be a time to:

"Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union." 

The noble purpose of Thanksgiving Day being set aside to praise God for his provision and express our gratefulness for his "deliverances and blessings" still hold a place for many of as we gather with family and friends - in person or remotely this year - offer glimpses of what is best about us in the demonstrations of service to those who lack even the most basic of needs.

It's a wonderful day to recongnize that all across Anderson County such groups as the Haven of Rest, AIM, the Salvation Army, Meals on Wheels, Free Clinic, Clean Start, the Good Neighbor Cupboard, plus churches too many to name here are shining examples of turning away from the "national perverseness" of self interest, to express their gratitude through kindness and generosity. 

Some families will gather around their tables today, again, real or virtual, and ask each person to offer up a list of things for which they are grateful. Others serving this country in far-flung places will have a holiday meal and only memories of those back home for now. I am grateful for these men and women. I am also grateful for those in crucial jobs, keeping the electrical grid up and water flowing for example, who must delay their holiday celebrations so the rest of us are enjoying the day.

And this year there are thousands upon thousands of Americans in hospitals as a result of the pandemic, some recovering slowly, and others who will likely not come home at all. I am grateful to the medical workers who were thrown into the deep end of taking care of our families and friends, working long hours in ten often depressing and dangerous circumstances.  

The hangerover of a year of better elections should call us to join Lincoln to "fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union." We have always found ways to heal from our wounds as a nation, and for that I am grateful as well.

Meanwhile, so many in far-off lands will spend today day standing in long lines for rice or beans or a jug of clean water, while most of us here will eat from tables so full of food they can barely contain the weight. None us of chose where we were born, and I am grateful to have been born in a land of plenty.

The majority of us, though we may not have all the things we think we want, we have more than we need, and hopefully are sharing with those who do not. 

But even though in some ways Thanksgiving Day still holds true to the traditions, such as gratitude and demonstrations of such thankfulness through helping our neighbors, is it losing ground every year to a perverseness hardly imaginable when Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Day proclamation. It has become the time of year when America's lust for material goods expresses itself in ways far beyond simply people unleashing their minds to go on spending sprees. 

Over the past three years, more than two dozen national retail/grocery chains have changed their policies an closed their stores on Thanksgiving Day so employees can spend time with their families. I am grateful for this news. Shopping can wait.

Black Friday will likely be a little less crowded this year as well, as people shop more online and are practicing safety during the pandemic. But don't forget in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas to find ways to support our locally owned businesses. Local restaurants have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with some estimaitng that nationally 80 percent or more will close permanently within the next six months. Gift cards from these places make excellent holiday gifts.

There is a "Shop Small" challenge every year asking communities to spend at least 40 percent of their holiday shopping budget locally. It's a fine idea, and worth the effort.

Tomorrow, still full of turkey and gravy, we face the next holiday challenge of maintaining our grateful heart in a world so full of bright, shiny objects vying for our attention and our wallet. So today is the day to reflect on the essential nature of gratitude.

It is a gift that needs no wrapping paper, ribbon or space under the Christmas tree. Research is conclusive that those who approach life with a sense of gratitude, have fewer mental and physical problems, live longer, exhibit less stress, have a stronger immune system, and even handle loss far better than those who do not live life with the recognition that they do indeed have a lot for which to be grateful.

How does a person get to that place, a place where gratitude is more than an occasional occurrence?  

The best place to start, according to one study, is to verbally acknowledge those things for which you are thankful every day. Not just today. Those in this study who wrote a daily gratitude list for one full year expressed the experience profoundly changed their lives. Stories of overcoming depression, lowered blood pressure, and even healing of relationships were common among those who finished the year-long gratitude list project.

So make your first holiday gift for 2020 one for yourself. Commit to a daily practice of gratitude, verbal or written for the next 365 days. You won't be sorry.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote:  Thanks are the highest form of thought... gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

And that is my Thanksgiving wish to all this season as you give thanks today, that you will experience happiness doubled by wonder.