From The Ramparts

What Are You Thankful For, Count our Blessings

                                          What Are You Thankful For, Count Your Blessings

                                                                Junious Ricardo Stanton

A special day was set aside for prayer and thanksgiving in 1621 by William Bradford the governor of the Plymouth colony from England to commemorate the first harvest and the colony’s survival through the winter. Out of that occasion the American holiday of Thanksgiving was born. All holidays are man made whether they are religious or secular. Tribes, clans, communities and groups created festivals and holy days to mark celestial events such as the rising of a particular star, the equinoxes or the planting and harvesting seasons. Often days were set aside to remember a special occurrence such as victory in war or the death of a hero or special person. All holidays are man made.

Today we celebrate the holiday called Thanksgiving which was made a national day of observance or holiday by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 when he selected the third Thursday in November. Now it is observed on the fourth Thursday in November.

We have come a long way from a day of prayer and thanksgiving to where we are now in 2024 where Thanksgiving is a day of gathering with a primary focus on food (gluttony?) and football. Perhaps we should get back to the original intent, a day of prayer, meditation and thanksgiving. Modern society, what some mistakenly call progress is not so progressive in that it eschews notions of being grateful and appreciative for life, bounty and blessings. We have become too fixed on entitlement and selfish.

Thanksgiving helps us think about family and being together. On this day pause and take a few minutes to actually think about the things in your life you are grateful for, what is important to you, what you value and consider a blessing. It could be good health, a home, a roof over your head, family and friends who love you and care for you who want the best for you. It could be your children, grandchildren and extended family. Amid the chaos, commercialism and consumerism and the focus on material things, take time to rethink what is really important to you. Think about your parents and ancestors because if it wasn’t for them you would not be here. Give thanks for them.

We did not get here on our own or by ourselves; neither did this planet or the universe. Much of the world believes in the so called “Big Bang theory” of creation; but they never stop to ask what caused the big bang? How can you have an explosion that creates the vastness of galaxies and celestial systems from nothing?! Where does gravity come from? How and why are life and nature an interconnected and interdependent ecosystem? How did this awesomeness manifest from a single explosion? Modern so called scientists, academicians and intellectuals fail to even speculate the cause behind their big bang. Yet they say the universe is expanding; how?

I know intuitively that there is a CREATIVE force and energy in the universe that undergirds and sustains everything. It has been called many names throughout the course of human history. All tribes and cultures have a name for this intelligence, power and energy. Some simply call it God, Chi, Jok, Nommo to name a few and whole systems of theology and religion have been created to define, deify, explain and pay homage to it.

Unfortunately in modern times especially in America this intelligence, power and energy has been replaced by crass materialism or worse an uncritical worship of technology. We are no longer in awe of life; in fact there is a movement away from the natural order towards transhumanism, bio-digital convergence, cyborgs and such. The arrogance behind this mentality may prove the undoing of humanity because it is opposed to the natural order, the intelligence, power and energy that sustains the universe!

On this Thanksgiving day, take inventory of what you are thankful for, what you can point to that gives you joy for what is going on in your life that you feel good about. Take the time to think about this and give conscious thanks. Deliberate, conscious appreciation and thanksgiving are a form of positive therapy, the more you recognize what you have to be grateful for the happier you become; and in today’s environment who doesn’t want to feel good about themselves and their situation? Try it and see what happens. If it doesn’t work for you, you can always go back to being unconsciously ungrateful.

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 9:07 AM