Thanksgiving is a holiday as complex as our nation’s history. As a child, my classmates and I dressed up like Pilgrims and Native Americans gathering to celebrate a harvest together. What we didn’t talk about was the diseases the Europeans brought with them and the eventual conflicts, massacres, and taking of land from those who once welcomed these strange new visitors.
Several hundred years later, in the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln declared a national Thanksgiving Day. While our country was at war and a divided nation was consumed by violence, there was a call to give thanks as it started to appear as though our republic would survive this bloody conflict.
We can be thankful while also acknowledging our shortcomings. We can gather around a table and celebrate the hospitality of those Native Americans centuries ago while also acknowledging the very people they welcomed ended up taking their land and displacing them.
We can remember that the Pilgrims originally tried to build community, much like the vast majority of today’s undocumented immigrants, while some today want to indiscriminately deport even those who are contributing in a positive way to our society.
Over a hundred years ago, in the midst of a conflict that nearly destroyed our nation, President Lincoln called for thanksgiving. Even his own story around race and slavery is much more complex than most of us have been taught.
The history of the United States of America is full of contradictions. We were based on the notion of all men (white, property owning males) being created equal, while enslaving different races and disenfranchising women and those without wealth.
Our journey towards the full embodiment of our ideals is far from over. Humans once considered 3/5 of a person now have the right to vote, even as some still seek to limit their voice or diminish their humanity. Women who fought for centuries to have independence from male domination still have some who want to control their bodies. Immigrants, once the lifeblood of our nation’s growth and diversity, is now scapegoated by some as the source of the majority of our problems.
If we want to make our nation great, we should not go back to the missteps of our past, but learn from them and move forward to seek a more perfect union, one that offers everyone a seat at the table. America, in some ways, has always been great, but it’s never fully been what it claims to be.
As we pause today for a day of thanksgiving, it is appropriate to both appreciate the goodness of our nation and acknowledge its more undesirable aspects. Much like everyone person who calls this nation home, our country is a mix of good and bad, light and dark.
I need look no further than the mirror in my bathroom to remember that there is always work to be done and growth to be had. While I am thankful for the ways I have slowly evolved towards being my ideal self, the mirror reminds me I still have much work to do. If that’s true for me, I’m sure it’s true for you. It surely must be true for the collection of human beings who make up the fabric of this good but terribly imperfect and fractured union.
May we learn to lead with kindness, seek understanding, and love our neighbors (even those we might consider “enemies”). Thanksgiving calls us to lean into gratitude, abandon hatred, and extend a hand of reconciliation, healing, and peace.
Happy Thanksgiving, friends.
Breaking Into Peace 