Meaning of Thanksgiving

All over the USA it is a very special day today – one that has a meaningful concept, one that brings families together, one that makes many to pause and count their blessings. For some it’s just another day off, a day to eat turkey with stuffing, corn bread, cranberry sauce, pecan pie to their heart’s content and to watch football. Ever since my first Thanksgiving in America (seems like eons ago) I have come to appreciate the true significance of Thanksgiving more and more as time passes.

Many people only lament about what they don’t have, but never really appreciate what they have. Some folks never have enough. Somewhere I had read, “I complained I had no shoes till I saw person with no legs”. That was an eye opener for me as a little boy growing up in a poor family. Even back then we were much better off. There were beggars and lepers at our door for a little almsgiving and my mother had shown the meaning of “giving”.

No, there is no Thanksgiving celebration, no turkey dinner in Angola, but it is still my favorite day. I have been blessed beyond imagination. I have a loving family, a house, a well paying job, eyes/ears/arms/legs, good health. I can’t ask for anymore, nor am I competing with the Jones. I have seen people who would love to be in my shoes. Right here in Angola I have seen the slums where children are growing up with nothing. Many of them won’t live to be forty. This scenery is no different than the slums of Sao Paulo, or Mumbai, or Jakarta. I see people on the streets of Luanda maimed by war, people with no legs, people dragging their body across the street with the power of their hands. I see poor street vendors selling stuff trying to make a living.

So, we have lot to be thankful for. The Native Americans had shown compassion to a starving bunch of colonists offering what they had. Obviously, the same folks were treated with injustice and unfairness. America is still going through a process of cleansing its soul. Now we take this day to pause and be thankful for everything we have, thank those who helped us to get to where we are, pray for those who are less fortunate and pray to give us the wisdom to avoid greed, injustice, and unfairness so that we can some day truly treat every life as precious and equal. So, in that sense the concept of Thanksgiving should be a universal ideal (and not just an American thing) and people all over the world have something to be thankful for.