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Thanksgiving Reflections
Remaining Thankful despite our collective grief
Thanksgiving week has started for Americans. It is a day to commemorate the Pilgrims who were thankful to have found freedom from oppression and new lands to live on. They also found indigenous people who were friendly and welcoming not knowing what was to come. Sounds familiar doesn’t it, when you think of the poor Palestinians?
So here we are preparing for our families Thanksgiving dinners. It is so exciting as the whole family gathers from near and far. Plans are being made on text or WhatsApp about the meal, and who is preparing what. In our family, Thanksgiving has been celebrated with aplomb always. After all the planning, the execution we sit down at the table and we share what we are grateful for. We also make sure the grandchildren share this beautiful practice. And this year, there will be a dark cloud and many are fasting in grief on this big feast day.
As a human species, we think of ourselves first…how grateful we are not to be fighting for our very survival. And in the same breath, we feel guilty for not being able to do anything to help trapped people- hostages, refugees- get their freedom. We try to eclipse the horror of reality with a belief and hope that the oppressed people who have struggled for so long will find their freedom from occupation. The…
