The Thanksgiving holiday has become a time of eating lots of food at friends’ and families’ houses, watching colorful parades and sporting events such as professional football and basketball games and in many cases, shopping for pre-Black Friday deals. As people partake of these activities, they talk about politics, sports, family and the latest developments on their jobs or personal lives.
What many people fail to do is talk about what they are thankful for. As they stuff their bellies, they complain about the job, the economy, the spouse or significant other, the Biden administration and “the mess the world is in.” People become “living room lawyers” as they dissect what is wrong with others and how they should fix their lives.
Instead of a time of joy and happiness, Thanksgiving can devolve into petty skirmishes about who fixed the gummy mash potatoes, why someone else’s child is so messed up, young people being disrespectful of older people or why hasn’t a family member gotten married yet? It is more common than it should be that Thanksgiving ends up becoming a day of arguments or covert boiling tensions between family members and friends.
Thanksgiving should be a time when all who are living and functioning in society should be thankful. People should be thankful that they have a job instead of griping about their responsibilities or the boss. Their children may not be perfect, but at least they are home from college or on break from school instead of sitting in a juvenile detention facility. The homes in which people reside or visit for Thanksgiving may not be of mansion quality but it is comfortable. A growing number of Americans don’t have a home to go to. While the coronavirus pandemic is still around, the days of the virus killing hundreds of thousands of people monthly appear to be over because of vaccines and adherence to measures designed to keep people safe.
This Thanksgiving, people should be thankful for what they have. It could be a lot worse.