Thanksgiving, that time of the year when family comes together as a form of giving thanks for one another. The highways are packed, the airports overcrowded and stores an impossible nightmare of shopping frenzy. And there is really very little thanks being given, truth be told. The question quickly becomes, “what is the point of all of this”?
Sometimes, it can seem so hard to find the point. For Christian folk, this is the end of the year and the first Sunday after Thanksgiving is the New Year. At least it is according to the Church calendar. This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. We start over again, looking for that spark of light to enter the world again, to reassure us all that the Light never goes out, that at the darkest hour, there is still Hope.
Thanksgiving has been corrupted by our materialistic need to have more stuff. It leads us to the frenzy of Black Friday sales, emotionless buying, and needless spending. And, yet, it is the beginning of the time of hope. The time of seeing how hopeless we all really are when left to our own devices. This is a time of great contradiction, for we demonstrate by our materialism that we don’t need anyone else, don’t need a higher Power, that we can do this all by ourselves and yet……and yet…….we know we need to give thanks, to be with family, to reflect on all that we have been giving.
Perhaps this is necessary, painful though it can be. Perhaps we need this last frenzy to remind us how difficult it is when we try to do it all by ourselves. Perhaps it even helps to push us toward an emptiness, a certain darkness if you will, that forces us to admit we are spent, done, worn out, and ready for a new spark of light.
This Thanksgiving, I will finally admit that I am thankful for not having to be my own light in the world. I am truly thankful for family, for friends, for great students, for life itself. Life with all of its twists and turns, joys and pains, for this I will be thankful because it is life. I have been gifted with another year and I am thankful. But, I am most thankful that a new year begins, with that one tiny spark of Light that will erupt into new Life, for all.
TMM