![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aleteiaen.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/11\/andrew-at-table.jpg\" "\\"andrew-at-table\\"")
<\/a>A lot of us know the story.<\/p>\nIt was the autumn of 1621. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, after a rich harvest, the men, women and children who had survived the first year in the New World gathered for a feast to offer thanks.<\/p>\n
One of the pilgrims wrote at the time: \u201cBy the goodness of God, we are so far from want.\u201d<\/p>\n
What was it like?\u00a0 I did a little Googling and found that the menu for that first Thanksgiving had some surprises. It was not necessarily turkey and pumpkin pie. Historians think they probably ate fowl and venison \u2013 or deer. The pilgrims didn\u2019t have forks, but used spoons. More likely, they ate with their hands. And the food was probably a lot more fatty than we are used to. Cholesterol was unheard of. They were more worried about plague and the pox.<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t have much sugar, so sweets and deserts were probably not on the menu. So, you can forget the pumpkin pie.<\/p>\n
Whatever it may have involved, that meal left us with an enduring tradition: a gathering around a table, giving thanks for surviving in an uncertain and difficult new place.<\/p>\n
But a few years ago, the Unitarian minister Peter Fleck suggested we look at this differently.<\/p>\n
Maybe, he wrote, the pilgrims weren\u2019t thankful because they had survived.<\/p>\n
But maybe they had survived\u2026because they were thankful.<\/p>\n
These were people who lived their lives in wonder and hope, grateful for everything: the hard winds and deep snows\u2026the frightening evenings and hopeful mornings \u2026the long journey that had taken them to a new place. They knew how to express gratitude.<\/p>\n
Gratitude doesn\u2019t always come easily. We all know that generosity \u2013 the giving of a gift \u2013 means thinking more about others than about yourself. It represents an act of love. But so does being thankful. To give thanks is to extend yourself. It is to remember where the gift came from.<\/p>\n
It is to go out of your way to acknowledge that \u2014 like the one cured leper in the gospel, who changed the direction he was headed, and walked back to Jesus, all the way back from the temple, to thank him.<\/p>\n
There is love in that. A love for the gift \u2013 and for the one who gave it.<\/p>\n
Reverend Fleck suggested that maybe that<\/em> is what enabled the pilgrims to thrive and prosper: a humble appreciation for whatever God gave them, trusting that He would give them what they would need. It\u2019s an optimistic message, really \u2014 and gratitude, I think, carries a spirit of optimism. Maybe that spirit can teach us something, as we endure our own hard winds and deep snows \u2013 the storms of our own lives. Especially now.<\/p>\n\u2013 Homily for Thanksgiving Day, 2009<\/p>\n
Read the rest<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot of us know the story. It was the autumn of 1621. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, after a rich harvest, the men, women and children who had survived the first year in the New World gathered for a feast to offer thanks. One of the pilgrims wrote at the time: \u201cBy the goodness of God, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,11534],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies","category-thanksgiving"],"yoast_head":"\n
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