Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is most definitely a Pollyanna kind of day. Let's look at how it began.

1) The Pilgrims left England because not too many people liked their brand of religion. Countries were pretty big on religious intolerance in the 1600s.

2) They came over on a very small ship, were very crowded on that ship, went through some nasty storms, and were generally cursed at by the seafarers, which couldn't have been all that great, considering they were religious sorts. Also, nobody took baths, sanitation was abysmal, so the place stank for the months they were traveling to the new world.

3) A lot of them died, including children. See #2 above.

4) When they landed in the New World, it was cold, nasty, and the place looked desolate. It was so forbidding and hopeless-looking that it's said one woman committed suicide by jumping off the ship and drowning.

5) They settled at a bad time of year, when few crops could grow. A lot more died during the winter of disease and malnutrition.

It was nothing like Merrie Old England. No green pastures, forbidding dark forests, and natives that were probably not all that friendly. So, why Thanksgiving? Why have a party that thanked God for all they had? Why not think about how awful it'd been and give up in despair? Go back to England? Sure, nobody liked them there, but it wasn't as if they'd die unless they got too out of hand for the government.

Well, some of them were still alive. Some children had been born. And, a nice Native came out of the woods and asked if they had some beer--in English--and though he had to settle for whiskey, he was friendly enough and showed them how to survive better. A miracle, they thought, that they'd meet up with such a guy.

And it wasn't as if Squanto had it all nice and cozy either. Fact: he'd been captured by white men and sold as a slave. After years of work, and finally attaining his freedom, he came back to his land and found...that his family and whole tribe was dead. He was the last of his people. A lot of people would have given up at that point.

So, why did he help out these white folks, and why did these Pilgrims help him in return? It's not like either of them had great experiences with each others' people.

It just took a few white men who cared for Squanto when he was young and healed him of his wounds and illness to make him see that not all white men were bad. And it took a few friendly words in English from Squanto to show the Pilgrims that not all natives were bad. Each helped each other, and soon, each were friends and celebrated survival and increased abundance by sharing and thanking God for making their lives better than they had been. The first Thanksgiving feast was all about sharing: the Pilgrims pulled out all the stops and put what they had on the table. The Natives were invited to feast, but when they found there wasn't quite enough on the table, they went out, hunted up some deer, cooked it up, and put that on the table. A potluck!

Yeah, it'd been bad for all of them, but they could think of things to be thankful for. Things to be glad about.

Survival is good. Increased abundance is good. And looking back at the bad times and knowing that it's not that way any more is surely something to be happy about. The Pilgrims and Squanto had things to share; because of that, they could tell each other that they still possessed something worthwhile. They may not have been rich, but they had things to share and give each other. If they had not things, they had friendships to share. In their hearts, they were rich.

So maybe life hasn't been great, and maybe it still isn't so hot. But seasons change, hands are held out to help, and friends can be made. And, what you have, you can share. Regardless of how little you think you have, if you have something to share, in my humble opinion, you're not heart-poor, but rich indeed.

Have a warm, abundant, and happy Thanksgiving!

--Karen H.