what does thanksgiving mean?

Thanksgiving.

Giving thanks.

To who?  What is gratitude if simply sent into the air with no recipient?  Why should I be thankful if I fully believe that everything that has happened to me was either by chance or a product of my own diligence? Am I thanking myself?  Imagine this same scenario but with another concept.  Like love.

I could say, "I am a really loving person."  But, problematically, this isn't true if I am not loving anything.  I could claim to be the most compassionate soul on this desolate planet, but if all I did was sit at home and play Call of Duty, you'd surely call me a liar.



It's the same with thankfulness.  I can say "I'm so thankful for everything I have," but if I'm not thankful to anyone, what is thankfulness?  Just an empty feeling?  Here I suppose we need a definition of thankfulness.

And perhaps I am behind the times.

Thanksgiving probably doesn't mean thanksgiving anymore.  It probably means something more like "pleased with," or "happy about."  But isn't thanksgiving something else?  Doesn't true thanksgiving mean something more than happiness and pleasure?

Neither of those other two require community or God (though, certainly, all truly good things flow from God).

I can be all alone and be pleased with something that I own or that I've done.  I can be happy about something and never tell a soul.  Because it doesn't really affect anyone else.  But thanksgiving--the beauty of thanksgiving rests in its expression received by another.  That's what makes thanksgiving something other than happiness or pleasure.  That's what makes it a "giving."  Thanksgiving includes happiness and pleasure, but it's a higher virtue.  It transcends pleasure, because it involves something outside myself.  Happiness and pleasure are personal virtues, thanksgiving is a communal virtue, a divine virtue.

If you celebrate thanksgiving this year, don't just talk about things you're pleased with.  Do that, sure.  But do more.  Thank someone.  Give thanks.  It is a gift.  Give someone that gift.

Here are a few of mine:

Thank you Jesus for giving me a flourishing soul.

Thank you Dad for always taking me fishing and hunting, loving me how you knew best.

Thank you Mom for being patient with me all those rebellious years.

Thank you Tiffany for loving me unconditionally.