I love that the holiday season begins with Thanksgiving. It sets the mood for us, to begin with a grateful heart. On Thanksgiving morning, I followed my normal routine and started the day by reading several news feeds to get the headlines. What I saw was interesting, and I ended up looking at lots of newsfeeds – many of which I rarely read. Here’s what I found: Local news feeds (KGAB, Channel 5, Capitol City News) only used the word thanksgiving in reference to the weekend’s weather or not at all (Cheyenne Post). NBC didn’t have the word at all and CBS News only had the word in two headlines: one about President Biden’s weekend plans and one outing the few stores that were closed for the day. On CNN I had to scroll down three complete page lengths before the word Thanksgiving appeared in a headline, and that was on an article entitled “Celebrate this Thanksgiving with some food porn”. The BBC had a riveting article about how we should ignore the “very narrow” story of the pilgrims and thank evolution and the dinosaurs for our turkey dinners.
Huh. I have pondered these headlines (or the lack thereof) for the past few days, and I think maybe there are two facets to the media’s decision to turn a blind eye to the point of the holiday: Thankfulness.
First, there’s the maligning or ignoring of the beginnings of the holiday itself. When the pilgrims came to America’s east coast in November of 1620, they were seeking a new life with the freedom to worship as they chose. Can you even imagine the courage it took for the mothers who boarded to step onto that creaky little wooden boat, holding their children’s innocent and trusting hands, with the whole of the Atlantic Ocean stretching in front of them and no home awaiting them? Yikes. They were fortified by the strength of their convictions, and that’s a depth of courage that few of us today can even begin to comprehend. Yet, our media has vilified and maligned them and ignored them. You see, perhaps we are no longer supposed to venerate courage or principles. Perhaps we are supposed to stay meek and unwilling to stand up for our beliefs. Perhaps it now is fashionable to remain docile and simply absorb with what we are being fed instead acting on our convictions. Certainly, if you read the mainstream media’s offerings, bravery isn’t in style unless it is to smash and grab at Louis Vuitton (and really, since no one stops them or prosecutes, does that take courage?)
The second idea I had regarding the intended message of the media last Thursday is this: we should never, ever be thankful. When we say we are grateful, there’s the understanding that there is Someone who deserves our gratitude. By celebrating Thanksgiving, we are acknowledging that our blessings and gifts come from somewhere or Someone beyond ourselves. By shutting off this commitment to having a grateful heart, we shut off our acknowledgement that God is here and active and deserves our praise. It also, subtly, encourages us to believe that what we have is what we are intrinsically entitled to and therefore no thanks are necessary. Taking that attitude to the next step, we see how when we worship at the altar of entitlement, then anyone possessing anything we don’t have becomes the recipient of our resentment and bitterness. (Think Louis Vuitton and those who can actually afford his wares.)
Well, today, I reject both of these lines of thinking. I admire the pilgrims for their strength and their faith and I enter this holiday season happily knowing that I don’t deserve even one of the many blessings I have, and I offer my humble and deep gratitude to my God and Savior.
