Give thanks in times of adversity

Editor’s note: This editorial, slightly edited, is being reprinted from Nov. 22, 2006. Jack died April 23, 2022. As I think about that date, it seems like it has been so much longer. Inevitably, the days we have with those important to us pass far too quickly while the time without them seems far too long. Today, give thanks for the time you get to spend with those most important in your lives

Maybe the most important thing to remember tomorrow — aside, of course, from being thankful — is the climate in which Thanksgiving Day was established as a national holiday.

When we think of Thanksgiving, inevitably images of those bountiful horns of plenty come to mind, along with Pilgrims and Indians and turkey.

But the roots of Thanksgiving aren’t in bounty. They are in sacrifice.

They aren’t in family gatherings, but in families divided.

They aren’t in self-satisfied afternoons of over indulgence. They are in war, in loss, in human suffering, perhaps because it’s human nature only to be truly thankful when we are at the end of our tether.

Think about it for a second.

Do you really feel thankful when your stomach is full? Or when you are hungry and finally find a morsel of food?

Do you really feel thankful for your freedoms when they come easy? Or when you have a disturbing sense that they could have slipped away?

Is a nation at peace more thankful for peace than a nation at war? Abraham Lincoln knew the difference.

He’d seen his nation divided. He’d seen bloodshed. He’d seen regional stupidity compounded by regional stupidity.

And when he declared a day of national Thanksgiving, things were a mess. Brothers had killed brothers. Families were ripped apart. 

The tide of blood was unimaginable.

And yet, Lincoln said, this is a time to be thankful.

The Civil War had ended two days before. Four days later Lincoln would be shot dead.

Today, tomorrow, now — this is a time to be thankful.

American troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan, their missions there increasingly unclear, their fates uncertain, and yet they are thankful and we are thankful for them.

Enormous problems confront mere individuals at home every day. Cancer, poverty, violence, and yet they are thankful and we are humbled by their gratitude in the face of adversity.

Give thanks on Thursday. Give thanks for your own sake. Give thanks for those whose paths have been rockier than yours but who have managed to plow ahead.

Give thanks to those who put themselves at risk for others.

And give thanks for those who remind us, like Lincoln, that even in the face of adversity it’s important to give thanks. — J.R.