Happy Thanksgiving

A couple posts back I wrote about gratitude. I was preparing for Thanksgiving and reflecting on what the holiday means to me. Thanksgiving, actually this whole time of the year, is not one of my favorite holidays. I am a total Scrooge when it comes to Christmas and I feel like tomorrow is the start of the season's madness. I don't really want to digress on Christmas right now for I am saving that nugget of a post for December. I do, however, want to stress that even if I am not fond of this holiday I do value this holiday for two important reasons. First and foremost it is the coming together of friends and family. It is a day to sit and break bread with those we love and cherish. A day to be gentle with our words. A day to join hands around the table. A day to give. And that leads me into the second reason I like Thanksgiving. The day reminds me that there have been times in my life when someone helped me out. Even the most competent among us sometimes needs a hand from someone else. Tomorrow (for at least one day during the year) is a day when one should recognize, in John Donne's words that "no man is an island entire of itself". Some of what I have, I owe to other people. It reminds me to give something back -- even if it is to someone else. I realize Thanksgiving is an American holiday. Most of us can afford to purchase more food than our family could possibly eat. That is not the case, everywhere in the world. Chances are, that is not the case everywhere in your town or city. Get involved. Do something to give back to your community, your world- where ever that be. Start with this, FreeRice. While testing your vocabulary (I scored extraordinarily high- go figure?) you are also participating in the act of ending hunger. For each word you get get right, FreeRice donates ten grains of rice through the UN with the goal of reducing hunger. And we all need to increase our vocabulary- a word a day? Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. What are you waiting for?