Thanksgiving 2005

[Inline-4]

Hi Ken,

I am replying on the XJ Riders list as to not get Rick's dander up ;-)

You are right. There is no reason for Oz to celebrate a US holiday. On the
other hand there is no reason to be a nation of ingrates that show no
gratitude for anything. You seem like an intelligent fellow so I am
surprised that your focus here has been the US holiday rather than
appreciation or gratitiude in the appropriate context.

I mentioned NDOT because, while it is not the "USA Thanksgiving", someone in
Oz clearly sees a need to express gratitude from time to time.

As for the US Thanksgiving:

It has been largely commercialized but its roots are deeply seated in simple
gratitude to deity. Those early settlers were glad to simply survive. When
the harvest of the years after drought was tremendously successful and their
survival assured they held a feast (several over time actually). The Indians
joined them. There were a number of prayers offered up to deity because they
believed that divine providence (and good farming) had preserved them. Among
them was a speech and prayer from Capt. Miles Standish that expressed deep
gratitude and thanksgiving for their preservation. William Bradford is
another whose accounts express gratitude to deity.

Keep in mind that many US traditions that are deeply rooted in faith, belief
in deity and simple appreciation have been veneered, diluted, secularized
and stripped of religious connotation. It is truly interesting to watch a
significant part of the US populace go blithely down the same path as tread
by the Greeks, the Romans, the Incas, etc. Much has been committed in the US
in the name of "tolerance". Most of it angling toward salving the conscience
of those who want a casual, commitment-free relationship to deity.

For me Thanksgiving has strong affiliation with more than "religion". It is
about faith and gratitude not a specific doctrine; gratitude being something
that even the most secular of humanists can relate to.

If the current social trends continue in 5-10 more years it will be renamed
"National Day of Secularized Non-Denominational Appreciation of the
Evolution of Meleagris Gallopavo". Then you can mock our nation for having a
National Evolution Day ;-)

Michael Oberle -'82 Seca Turbo
http://plan9.dnsalias.org:88/xj
->"Home of the XJ DAMHIKT"<-


*-----Original Message-----
*From: X...@yahoogroups.com [mailto:X...@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Ken
*Wagnitz
*Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2005 10:50 PM
*To: X...@yahoogroups.com
*Subject: Re: [XJ] Thanksgiving 2005
*
*
*Not to stretch an off topic too far, but...
*
*I had a walk at lunchtime with a work colleague. He being a very
*(christian) religious person, I
*asked him if he celebrated thanksgiving, or knew anyone who did.
*He said no and no, and asked why
*Australians would celebrate what is a commemoration of an American
*historical event.
*Reasonable description at
*http://wilstar.com/holidays/thankstr.htm, and of course the always
*reliable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving.
*
*So does it have a religious spin with some of you in the US? If so, why?
*
*Ken.
*
*