With all that\u2019s happening: war(s), strife, homelessness, inequality, even still, even here, a moment for gratitude.<\/span><\/p>\n Like so many of you, I\u2019ve been practicing thankfulness this week. Of the many, many things I have to be thankful for: health, life, loved ones near and far, my students, a dog at my feet and glass of Gruner Veltliner in my hand (specificity, I\u2019m told, aids in gratitude), that Michigan won The Game, the Bible and faith to believe it, a job\u2013\u00a0 two perhaps warrant an extended reflection here.<\/span><\/p>\n Just before Thanksgiving, I attended the Southern Historical Association conference, which, among other things, was an occasion to reunite with friends. Academic life\u2013and I\u2019d imagine pastoral life and all other sorts of vocations\u2013can be tiring and isolating. If you\u2019re fortunate enough to be employed, you likely have limited choices where. Even with good colleagues, these relationships must be professional and often, even when there is genuine warmth, hold some distance. Having taken over as department chair at my university a couple of years ago, this has become more acute. There are simply things I can\u2019t talk about, burdens that must remain mine alone. Having the opportunity to reconnect with fellow scholars in friendship has been such a gift. These have been my teachers, connectors, co-writers, and co-laborers in all kinds of things. We have edited one another\u2019s work, shared essays and primary sources, recommended graduate students and new hires. We have also listened to one another through tenure and promotion, through marriage and divorce and children and relocation.<\/span><\/p>\n There is an easy short-hand in these exchanges; we know the circumstances and share a lexicon. When I tell people about a tenure-track line freeze or a strategic planning committee, I can be sure of sympathetic eye rolls. And while academia can be a brutal environment, back-biting and competitive, I\u2019ve experienced little of that, personally. In fact, I have found historians to be such wonderful conversationalists, awkward as we can be as a lot. The same skills we cultivate in our craft\u2013perspective, empathy, curiosity\u2013can also make us good friends. And we will need each other over the long haul. Our institutions, great as many of them are, won\u2019t care for us; we have to care for one another the best we can. And I am grateful to all of those who have cared for me and with whom I\u2019ve been able to share life and work over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n The second thing\u2013and it\u2019s funny how rarely we articulate this\u2013is that I found myself grateful for so much that has come before. For all the terrible atrocities and oppressions in history, there are also examples of character and courage, fortuitous events. Teaching the Civil War this week, I was reminded of Ed Ayer\u2019s admonition to be thankful that the war endured until the Emancipation Proclamation, that Lincoln won the Election of 1964 and four million Black Americans were made free from the scourge of slavery. I\u2019m thankful for Susie King Taylor, and\u00a0 Elizabeth Freeman, and her great grandson, W.E.B. Dubois. I\u2019m thankful for Dunkirk, and Clarence Jordan and Rosalynn Carter, for Charles Sherrod and Fannie Lou Hamer, for polio and COVID vaccines.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It all adds up in ways we can\u2019t yet discern, but we hope. I\u2019m curious, what historical event or person are you most thankful for? Let\u2019s make a heartening litany, shall we?<\/span><\/p>\n In all the darkness, in all the mystery, we must hold space for thanks and for hope. It all reminds me of one of my favorite quotes (shamelessly stolen from an old pastor) from Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld: \u201cFor all that has been, thank you. For all that shall be, yes.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With all that\u2019s happening: war(s), strife, homelessness, inequality, even still, even here, a moment for gratitude. Like so many of you, I\u2019ve been practicing thankfulness this week. Of the many, many things I have to be thankful for: health, life, loved ones near and far, my students, a dog at my feet and glass of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4702,"featured_media":102590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n