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A Norman Rockwell View of Thanksgiving: Not Linked to Reality
Thanksgiving Day is for eating turkey, over-indulging, bickering with your family, watching football and shopping, right?
Sadly, that’s probably true for too many Americans. Thanks to our failed educational system, most Americans, especially the young, are blissfully ignorant of much of our nation’s history and of its founding principles.
And that includes the real meaning of Thanksgiving Day.
In recent decades, this quintessential American holiday has been distorted into an orgy of frenzied buying, exploited by eager retailers opening their doors at midnight … doors that this year will be open all day.
“I think we have a sort of Norman Rockwell view of Thanksgiving,” said Kit Yarrow, a psychologist in San Francisco. “It’s not really linked to reality for most Americans.”
Norman Rockwell is the late famed 20th century painter and illustrator of idealized American life, as he and many others thought it once was – and still should be.
So what should be the reality of Thanksgiving?
What was its original meaning and purpose?
And, if worthwhile, should we not try to revive its true spirit?
The Search for Freedom and a Better Life
What most Americans now commonly call the “First Thanksgiving” was a religious event celebrated to give thanks to God for guiding the Pilgrims safely to the New World. It is the story of dissenters rejected by English society, who came to America in search of religious freedom and a better life.
Having arrived in the New World, these early settlers gave thanks to the Author of Life for granting them safe passage to this abundant land and protecting them through a bitter winter – along with the help of some generous Native Americans.
In his Thansgiving Proclamation for 2012, President Barack Obama and his staff writers get history wrong. He attributes the first official day to President George Washington on October 3, 1789.
The very first official Thanksgiving Day in America was actually declared on October 11, 1782, by the Continental Congress.
Take time to go back and read that document and you will understand why current “politically correct” types will be shocked at its overt religious character.
Might one of our modern sins be the conversion of a national day of thankful prayer into an orgy of shopping, gastronomic gluttony and family friction fueled by alcohol and intolerance?
A Blessed America
Thanksgiving officially has been an annual national tradition since 1863, when during the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.
Both the proclamations of Lincoln and Washington emphasized the religious aspect of the day. Washington said: “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”
Certainly among the many things for which we should be thankful are family and friends. When all else fails, it is to family and friends we turn for help and support. This annual family holiday underscores just such ties and their vital importance.
Gratitude Defines Us at Our Best
A well-known 12-Step Program suggests that one major factor in recovery from addiction is an attitude of gratefulness. Gratitude defines us at our best. It does this by pointing away from self toward others, or toward a Higher Power some of us choose to call God.
So, too, our national day of Thanksgiving reminds us that there always is hope that life can be good and better – especially so in the United States of America, even in times of economic suffering and social turmoil.
So take a few minutes to review and understand the true meaning of this Thanksgiving Day. We should give thanks and be grateful for our liberty, thanks for those who fought and died to preserve it, for our own family and friends, most important among our many blessings.
Holiday Wishes
We can all count and realize our blessings this Thanksgiving 2012 and be grateful. That’s what my family and I will be doing.
It is our wish at The Sovereign Society that you and your loved ones experience a very enjoyable Thanksgiving in the true historic sense of the day — and in the coming days may God bless you and our America.
Faithfully yours,
Bob Bauman
P.S. As we give thanks for our liberty this Thanksgiving Day, we also have to reflect on the fact that our government is still steadily eroding those freedoms out from under us. To help take both our personal and financial freedom back into our own hands, I’ve assembled what I’m calling the “Ultimate Wealth Protection Resource” for hardworking Americans. To find out what you can do to start reclaiming your liberty today, click here.
2012-11-23 00:45:56
Source: http://sovereign-investor.com/2012/11/22/real-thanksgiving-day/
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