It is the time in this country when we take a day to give thanks. And so we do. We go overboard preparing too much food, occasionally eat to excess, watch football and parades, spend time with family and friends. Some of us rise early the next morning and do battle seeking material excess at low prices.
Some of us, those whose hearts are perhaps too big, who take the worries of the world too greatly, secretly fret about whether or not we should really be celebrating excess when there is so much tragedy in the world: people who have lost loved ones, families displaced by fires in California, hurricanes on the gulf coast, towns devastated, people who have lost everything. The tragedies of the world seem unimaginable, our own comfort and security shallow.
But of course it is good to have a ritualized day of Thanks, a reminder that there is always something to be grateful for, although we may not always see it. Perhaps it is human nature to wish for whatever it is we do not have, what we do not see, as if wishing would make it better. But I'm not sure we wish for the right things. Yes, wishing for rain to put out fires may seem good. But what if it rains too much? Mudslides, flooding. The world rarely seems to work in the way we humans would imagine it to be.
I have been remembering a book I loved as a child, Half Magic by Edward Eager. Children find a coin or talisman that grants half a wish. Misadventures ensue. There are parts of the book that are difficult for today's readers, yes, but I am not certain the we should abandon that which is good because of that which makes us uncomfortable. Easy answers often ignore difficult questions, and life, human life, is nothing if not complex and often contradictory. And so it is good to be grateful. It is good to be reminded that the things we wish for often have unintended and unimagined consequences, and that true magic can happen in the most unexpected and unanticipated ways.
Be grateful. Be kind. Do something for someone else, no matter how small. Have a wonderful day, by which I also mean take time to breathe in the wonder. Give thanks. Then, having stored up all that goodness, share it with the world.
(the painting is by Joseph Delaney. I originally posted it, and wrote about it, last August, here.)
