
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 23, 1995                   TAG: 9511240019
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-30   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THANKS GIVEN, BLESSINGS RECEIVED

THE HARVEST is in, and even those of us who gather our food from produce bins in the grocery store and "put up" corn and beans canned by Delmonte are not so far removed from nature's cycle of life and dormancy that we can fail to respond to the change in seasons.

The Earth yields its bounty; we gather it in and prepare for feasting and fellowship and taking stock - not just of the plentiful nutrition most of us are blessed with, but of all that is good in our lives. We remind ourselves, or ought to, that warnings and crises and wrongs aside, we have much for which to give thanks.

More fundamental than political discourse - the often ugly dialogue that accompanies jockeying for power, that widens and exploits divisions and resentments, that demands more for "us," less for "them" - far more basic is the private dialogue that will be held today around dinner tables. The talk of thanks for what we have.

Despite the fearful, fussing tenor of so much of the public discussion, many Americans will look up from a steaming platter of freshly sliced turkey and see surrounding them the richness of family and friends and the rewards of a fruitful life and nation.

And if everything is perfect - everyone home safe and in good spirits, the turkey cooked but moist, the mashed potatoes lumpy and the pumpkin pie smooth - we will give thanks.

And if someone is missing, a loved one who has died or is incapacitated and can't be at our table, we still will give thanks for the blessing of having in our lives this person cherished enough to be missed.

And if the turkey is really chicken this year, and the fixin's not so fancy as usual or as might be found on other tables in other parts of town, yet everyone has enough to feel full and satisfied, we will give thanks.

And if we don't have enough, but can sit down to tables filled with food by the goodness of generous people in a country wealthy enough to feed all its inhabitants, we will give thanks.

If, for whatever reason, this Thanksgiving does not measure up in all perfection and simplicity to a Norman Rockwell picture of American virtues and pleasures, we will give thanks for whatever is good in our lives - or whatever is about to change that will make them better. And in the giving, we will be taking on our plates a great portion of good will.

For the capacity to feel gratitude is one of humanity's greatest gifts. It allows us to recognize and enjoy our blessings while we have them, and gives us the resilience to overcome our sorrows when blessings prove temporary.

We can be swallowed up by neither envy nor greed while feeling gratitude, because it directs our thoughts to what we have rather than what we lack. We cannot be consumed by callousness while feeling gratitude, because who can be so arrogant as to believe they have earned all their blessings on their own merits alone?

We can feel neither happiness nor contentment without feeling gratitude. It is, in itself, a gift of the human spirit for which we should be grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving.

by CNB