Thanks... For Nuttin'

In days long past this time of year was widely celebrated for the resultant abundance of food the people's hard labor had provided, food that would last them through the harsh winter to come. Communities would gather together to share this wealth and to strengthen their communal and familial bonds. Apart from good health they could not ask for much more. All of this they faithfully attributed to the good graces of providence, which helped fill their souls just as much as they filled their bellies.

Today, food is abundant every day of the week and we can stay in contact with our friends and family at the touch of a button, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

So what is Thanksgiving for these days? Apart from football games, parades, Black Friday’s, and interminable waits at airports, that is. Where is the “thanks” in all of this rigmarole? Is it time to rename this thing?

On second thought, I suppose there is much for which to be thankful. Like a livable environment, if we can keep it, a lasting nuclear peace, if we can keep it, and a real Democracy, if we can keep it.

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That having been said, there are things we all should be truly thankful for...

Like existing at all. From a cosmological or evolutionary perspective the odds of you sitting there reading this are basically infinite-to-one against. Good on ya, fellow space-time traveling primate.

Let's be thankful for reading and writing. Earth may be the only place in the universe where acquiring and sharing information on the pulverized remnants of trees or microprocessor-arrayed photons occurs.

On a more practical level, let's all be thankful, every day, for the flush toilet and modern plumbing. Be thankful for those guys who haul your garbage off and those who harvest your food.

Also, refrigeration, environmental temperature control, grocery stores, and modern pharmacology.

And even though the news is filled with stories of people who do horrible things to one another, let's be thankful, truly thankful, that the vast majority of people live in harmony regardless of their creeds and/or melanin levels.

Happy Thanksgiving, ya wonderful old pencil-necks!

- Lefty