Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving thoughtsWhile many religions call on people to give thanks, Thanksgiving isn't tied in with any specific religion--it's not "owned" by Christianity or Judaism or Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism. Yet members of these and many more religions--and of no religions at all--have celebrated Thanksgiving. Each culture celebrates it with its own unique traditions, but usually a large meal of some kind is at the center.
It occurred to me that this is something I value about Thanksgiving. When members of different religions get too caught up in saying, "My religion is right and yours is wrong," and people have even committed violent acts in the name of religion, having one holiday that allows people to give thanks in whatever way has meaning for them gives me a glimpse into a more hopeful way of viewing faith or religion.
It gives everyone a chance to focus on what they're grateful for, and at the heart of this gratitude seems to be close connections with others--family and friends, This bond seems to be the one that most unites different religious traditions. Sometimes the bonds are bittersweet, but the hope remains--the shared meal is the emblem of that hope, the need to move out of our loneliness to be fed together. And the food isn't just what's on the plate. It's something much deeper--what everyone is hungry for: "companionship" comes from a Latin root meaning "bread," and suggesting that while this word might seem abstract to us now, its history has much to do with sharing both food and lives--human needs that cross religious/cultural boundaries.
If we can recognize the depth of this bond, maybe we can find some common ground as a human family.
Happy Thanksgiving every day!
posted by DPMcManus @ 5:47 AM
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