To a rational person, there may not seem to be much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving.
The world economy is crashing. There are countless starving people all over the face of the planet. There is violence. The Western world is one step away from becoming a mirror image of an Orwellian dystopia. The Eastern world is embroiled in superstition and the Western world is embroiled in cultural, political and existential crisis that if left unchecked may destroy it and I assert that nothing is wrong.
What I am grateful for this Thanksgiving, in the face of everything I just listed, is the opportunity to be here, now - alive.
What I am grateful for is my life: my heart beating in my chest; my strong hands and back; my acute mind; my network of family and friends and a chance to make a difference.
These things are an energy source as powerful, if not more so, than the sun the nourishes our tiny blue planet.
I had a conversation with a friend who told me that he thought that "my people" (white people) are the "oppressors" of this tiny blue planet, spinning in space. His argument seemed to only extend and expand my constant existential crisis.
Every part of my being wanted to make him wrong. To tell him to go fly a kite. To tell him that he just doesn't understand.
And then I realized: God speaks in ways that may burn like a hot iron brand in our minds.
And I got grateful and thankful, on this Thanksgiving - November 2009.
I am grateful for the opportunity to wake up each morning, meet the sun with a focused glance and steady hands... to know and to believe that my life and your life and all of our 7 billion lives on this planet.... we all make a difference.
We are all part of the great celestial equation and the misty, whirring universe that escapes our complete and total attempts to grasp and understand and measure it, no matter how advanced our technology gets and no matter how precise our calculations may seem.
There is always that "odd" factor, that "X" factor... the mystery.... the questions drive us forward... "Why are we here?"
"Who are we for one another as human beings?" "What is our purpose, on this rock?"
Back to my friend, my Black friend, my African-American friend and his idea that all the white people are oppressors.... He is right and he is wrong and I am right and I am wrong and that is what's so and it doesn't mean a thing.
And I am grateful to live inside the paradox... I am grateful that, in quiet moments of reflection, as I watch my Ecuadorian friend working away in my kitchen gently stir raisins and olives into turkey stuffing, I can rest assured that there is such a thing as spirit and that no matter what any of us say or do, we all have one... my proof, you ask, Eternal Skeptic?
We are not human DOINGS.
We are human BEINGS.
Be grateful this Thanksgiving.... Be grateful for the odd things... like raisins and olives in stuffing made by an Ecuadorian.
Be grateful for the undiscovered future of the 21st century.
Maybe Shakespeare was right.... "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."
Be grateful that you are one of its authors and you are one of the participants in the great narrative.
Maybe it's time to give up that any one "owns" the narrative. We wouldn't waste so much time trying to prove one another right or wrong. We would just exist and maybe learn to help one another.... Do you see it as possible?
Well, if that's so, then say that I am playing the part of friend, of brother, of son, of writer, of entrepreneur, of hero, of revolutionary, of believer, of poet, of musician, of an American...
That's my part and I am grateful to God for the opportunity to play that part.
And I invite you to hold my hand just one more time... and I invite you to look deep within yourself and I invite you to be insightfully straight with yourself and to share on this Forum:
"What are the "odd" things that you are grateful for this Thanksgiving?" (or, this Thursday, of this day has no particular meaning for you).
Do you see that as possible?
Thank you for your generous attention to this post.
In love, gratitude, brotherhood, and peace:
Justin Pickering
I enjoyed coming to the site and seeing your thoughtful message regarding life,Thanksgiving and Gratitude.
"Gratitude" an uplifting "Attitude"!
Be grateful that you are one of its authors and you are one of the participants in the great narrative
It is a blessing that we have the opportunity to dream the new paradigm for humanity into Being together. When I say together it is inclusive of Us and the Creating Spirit of Source.
Therefore, let our dreaming be that of purity, joy, bliss, love, justice, and all the balancing and harmonizing ideals and virtues.
The White people have gotten around the globe (not always in good ways) as catalyzers to ignite the day of global oneness. It is up to the people living today (black, white, red, yellow, Indigo, etc) to make that oneness uphold the teaching Tahirih foretold:
"With the Power of Equality Injustice will become evaporated".
Justin:
In love, gratitude, brotherhood, and peace:
In the world that I am dreaming of I would tweak the above to read: "In love, gratitude, sister-brotherhood, and peace" because I do think you meant to include the female gender.
With joy in the Living Moment
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