Four Hundred Years of Thankfulness

The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. It was a year later, 400 years ago now, that the survivors got together to celebrate the harvest with the native Wampanoag tribe—which included Chief Massasoit, Samoset, and Squanto, the only English-speaking native within hundreds of miles, all of whom had helped the Pilgrims survive and learn to plant a better (and earlier) crop than they had their first season.

"The Embarkation of the Pilgrims" by Robert Walter Weir
image from Wikipedia

Here’s a piece of the history, told in this American Thinker article: 

The truth is, when the Mayflower pilgrims and the Wampanoag sat down for the first Thanksgiving in 1621, it was a routine—and amicable—harvest celebration. Seven months prior to that feast, they had negotiated a peace treaty, one that lasted for nearly 50 years. In fact, that 1621 treaty was the only one between Native Americans and English colonists to be honored throughout the lives of all who signed it. It was diseases such as smallpox and leptospirosis that largely and tragically led to the decimation of the Wampanoag tribe.

More on that last detail in a bit.

Thanksgiving Day hasn’t continued without missing years—or decades, or centuries—since that time. One of the first Thanksgiving Day celebrations of the newly formed United States of America was proclaimed by President George Washington on October 3, 1789, marking the last Thursday of November than year as “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God.” Even after that time, the celebration wasn’t continual. But it is a deeply entrenched tradition now, and has been since well before my lifetime.

As many of us are doing, I am taking time with family. And I’m doing a fair amount of cooking. We have a plethora of dogs with us this year (our huge puppy is learning to welcome guests and perform other social graces). We’re doing it because of tradition and the desire to be together. But we’re also doing it because thankfulness is a beautiful thing to celebrate.

I’ve been keeping a gratitude journal for several months now. I think of plenty to be thankful for in prayers morning and night and in between, but it is sometimes challenging to find the one thing worth writing down every day. But social science suggests what scriptures have long told us, that gratitude is a way to a happy life, so it has become a habit I want to keep.

An attitude of gratitude is a definite plus in the how-to-live-a-good-life advice. But it’s more than just an attitude; it is an offering as a token of return, even if only a word of thanks. And thanks is not simply about the things you’re thankful for; it’s about who you give that thanks to. And while we often have people to thank for specific things, this day is actually about giving thanks to God.

A study out of Brigham Young University “suggests gratitude to God—and an indebtedness to Him—is far more meaningful and impactful than simply gratitude alone. In other words, counting your blessings without recognizing their source will not give you true happiness.” 

When you give thanks this day, give it to God, to whom you owe all blessings—even those you haven’t noticed yet.

In that American Thinker article, the surprising thing is that there is something of a movement (that I hope does not gather any more energy to move further) saying that we shouldn’t be thankful—for the Pilgrims, for our great nation, for our prosperity; we should be sorrowful, and probably ashamed. And therefore we should re-designate the day as a day of mourning. Mourning, I’m assuming, that we as a people ever arrived on this continent, or that the nation was ever formed.

The article’s author, Eric Utter, offers this commentary:

My oldest brother—who recently passed—had cancer, glaucoma, and Alzheimer's—and when anyone asked him how he was doing, even shortly before he died, he would reply, "Better than I deserve!"

I guess that is partly why I previously found Democrats' incessant grievance-mongering and the cult of victimhood so repulsive and so damaging. Dividing us by identity, I thought, is disgusting. Encouraging jealousy, entitlement, and bitterness is a recipe for disaster. Wouldn't it be much healthier for all of us as Americans to come together in the love of our country, heritage, and unique founding ideals? Or our shared ordeals? I used to believe that if we could all come together with gratitude, that itself would be something for which we could all be thankful.

Apparently the “mourning” pushers think we should feel guilty for "celebrating the genocide of the Wampanoag tribe"—as if anyone getting together this day, with loved ones, to thank God for our blessings ever thought the diseases that badly affected the Pilgrims’ Wampanoag friends was a good thing. What a lie! Eric Utter references this story that calls actual history a myth, so as to invent an actual myth that is far uglier than what actually happened. 

It’s hard to know when to respond to such nonsense and when to ignore it. This year I’ve become aware. If such a thing gains traction, I’ll see what I can to do shout it down (in my quiet blogger way).

In my personal celebration, I’ve been looking for things worth sharing here. I’ll just reference a few:

·       “Barton: Let’s Thank the Pilgrims for Defeating Socialism This Thanksgiving” Tim Barton of Wallbuilders, November 18, 2021.  He gives the history of the tragic follow-up to the 1621 Thanksgiving, when the Pilgrims tried out a form of socialism that nearly killed them. They recovered by returning to private property, for which we can be grateful—and from which example we should learn as a cautionary tale.

1780 Proclamation for a Day
of Thanksgiving in Massachusetts

·       “Proclamation–Thanksgiving Day–1780,Massachusetts” image of the original provided by Wallbuilders, written and signed by then-Massachusetts Governor John Hancock.

·       “The story behind President Nelson’s global prayer of gratitude and invitation to #GiveThanks” Church News in the Deseret News, November 25, 2020.   This includes the video referred to, which can be seen on YouTube here, and included below. It’s about the healing power of gratitude, and could suffice as all I’d want to say here today.

·       “The Pilgrims’ Epic, TRUE Story Sounds a Lot Like Afghanistan” Tim Barton speaks with Glenn Beck, November 19, 2021, showing him an original Geneva Bible carried on the Mayflower and used by the Pilgrims. They discuss some of the history that led to the Pilgrims’ coming—and coming so late in the year—back in 1620. 

Please enjoy President Nelson talking about the healing power of gratitude, and then have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks and Things

I am not a recreational shopper. It is not what I do for fun; it is what I suffer through to get needed items, like food and, when absolutely necessary, clothing. I will not be shopping on Thanksgiving Day. It’s hard to imagine myself shopping on Black Friday either, although an unanticipated circumstance may arise. But I will not seek that torture. Do people really go out into the crowds on purpose? What commodities could be worth it?

In short, I guess I’m thankful that my needs are not so great that I must fend off hordes to supply the family with what we need. If you have needs that take you out into the melee, you have my sympathies; it must be hard to feel thankful under such deprivation.

If you shop under those circumstances for recreation, I do not understand you; we are of a different substance. But the stores are out there, so you go for it, and may you enjoy yourself.

I am thankful that much shopping (and shipping) can be done by internet. What a relief! Shipping is less expensive and a lot easier that way. I’m all for that. Isn’t innovation and free enterprise a wonderful thing!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I came across a piece worth reading, about the Pilgrims. It was a piece on The Imaginative Conservative, called “Mayflower Compact or Plymouth Combination?” It was about the renaming of the agreement, some 173 years afterward. Neither “compact” nor “combination” are often used or understood the same way today. But I think the point is that it was a simple document declaring the Pilgrims’ right to self-government. The word covenant is used in it, a two-way promise, between each other, combining in their efforts to honor God. It’s a beautiful document, and precedence setting. In itself it is a declaration of the basic right to self-rule, which continued as a practice on this continent.

image from here

These good people didn’t start off getting everything right. As the story goes, they nearly starved the first year, but then things got better. What changed was their approach to property ownership. John Stossel recounts the situation in a piece this week called “Thankful for Property.” Good intentions from good people aren’t enough to ensure good behavior. Self-interest in managing personal property—in other words, enjoying your life, liberty, and the use of them—results in more moral behavior than common ownership.

So, if were making a list for Thanksgiving, we can be thankful God granted us life, liberty, and the right to pursue our own happiness. That includes the physical things we need as well as the more immeasurable things, like love, and family (same thing, really).

I came across a few quotes for the day worth sharing. I hope these help you celebrate a heartfelt and memorable Thanksgiving Day:

 

Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.—A. A. Milne

Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality.—Alfred Painter

I would maintain that thanks is the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.—G. K. Chesterton

A grateful person is rich in contentment. An ungrateful person suffers in the poverty of endless discontent.—David A. Bednar