Voice of the Chieftain: A day for ‘thanks, and ever thanks’
Published 7:00 am Wednesday, November 23, 2022
It could be that Thanksgiving is the least-appreciated of our major holidays. These days, it feels more like a small speed bump that we have to get over to race into the heart of the holiday season.
That’s a shame.
We have a soft spot in our hearts for Thanksgiving, and here’s why: It’s the only day of the year set aside for gratitude.
Nowadays, it doesn’t feel as if we have the time to be grateful, and that sense of time pressure intensifies during the holiday season, what with shopping and wrapping to do, attending parties and programs, and writing Christmas cards (or, in the alternative, posting season’s greetings on your Facebook page).
Abraham Lincoln also had plenty on his to-do list back in 1863, what with the Civil War raging and all, but he still found time in October of that year to issue a proclamation declaring a national day of thanksgiving. (Historians will know that George Washington also declared a national day for giving thanks in 1789, but before Lincoln’s proclamation, it was up to the states to declare their own days of gratitude. Lincoln was responding to a petition from a magazine editor, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, who had lobbied for decades for a national day of thanksgiving.)
It is true that Lincoln, a busy man, delegated the writing of the proclamation to his secretary of state, William Seward. (And it required action from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to finally fix the date as the fourth Thursday in November.)
Lincoln did find the time to write editorials for newspapers arguing for the national day of thanksgiving: “In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, the American people should take some time for gratitude,” he wrote.
Lincoln had reasons for gratitude: Three months before, the Union Army had claimed big victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Perhaps the tide finally had turned in the brutal Civil War.
Nevertheless, Lincoln’s call for his fellow Americans to take time for gratitude resonates today, and possibly more strongly than ever.
So here is our wish for you on Thanksgiving Day:
Before you start charting out shopping schedules, before you start clearing the space for the tree, before you turn on the TV to view the parades and football games, before you drag out the Christmas music from the dark nook where you’ve stashed it for safekeeping (really, that can wait until Friday), try this first:
Set your feet flat on the ground. Take a deep breath. Another one. And then another.
Then just take a minute or two to actually give thanks. Do it silently, if that works for you. If you’re a list-maker, jot down a few notes. Share your list if you like — it might start an interesting conversation.
Need a place to start? Consider offering thanks for what Seward called the “blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.” Or remember that “Thanks” is one of the writer Anne Lamott’s three essential prayers. (The other two? “Wow” and “Help.”)
And if you need further inspiration, consider these words from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night:” “I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.”