In a 2013 TED talk, Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast underscored his belief that it is not experiences of blessing or joy that make us grateful, but rather gratefulness that makes us joyful. He added that practicing gratefulness allows us to see each given moment as a gift, as an opportunity to be wrapped in gratitude — especially as we come to know the Giver of gifts.
Since we gathered together last Thanksgiving, we have endured twelve months of tumult in our nation.
We have seen an assault on the poor; chiefly through a tax plan that is geared to help corporations and the rich. We have seen the Affordable Care Act attacked, threatened, with advertising reduced.
We have seen an assault on the environment with the claims that Climate Change is a hoax. We have seen our country withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. We have seen an eagerness to embrace carbon fuels – especially coal.
We have seen an assault on the press. There has been an orchestrated attempt to devalue the First Amendment. The tools are obfuscation, deceit and outright lies.
We have seen the presumptive leader of the free world communicate lies an average of five times a day. We have witnessed insult, mocking and crude language from the highest office in our land.
We have experienced once again, the horror of gun violence resulting in mass shootings with the same laissez faire response from our leaders.
We have witnessed the rise of the alt-right seemingly energized by the current political climate.
Even the Internet as we know it may change.
We have seen the act of a protest – kneeling – enrage a nation while the very reasons that created the protest do not elicit the same response. People of color are once again mistreated and viewed with disdain.
We have seen the rise of anti-immigrant sentiments. Refugees, asylum seekers once welcomed with open arms are now not welcomed. DACA individuals – the Dreamers who do so much good for our country – are in danger of being sent to a country they never knew.
Not being able to find common ground amidst the anger and insults, many have walked away from civil discourse. Some people no longer listen to or watch the news. They have withdrawn or checked out.
In a recent column in the National Catholic Reporter, Sr. Joan Chittister informs us that, “Victor E. Frankl in his classic, Man’s Search for Meaning, reminds us, ‘Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Sr. Joan continues, “Of course, the temptation is to withdraw from it all. Yes, the challenge is to surrender spiritual tenderness in the face of such spiritual ruthlessness. Indeed, the delusion is that we can simply give up, turn our backs on the resistance, bury the “American dream.”
The poet Langston Hughes confronts us with our cowardice. He writes that we should “hold fast to dreams” because “life is a broken-winged bird” without them, unable to fly and a “barren field frozen with snow.”
The point is that we do not have the luxury of depression, of withdrawal or of surrender to our lesser selves as human beings. As long as these attitudes and acts are the mark of the new America, someone must hold fast to the dream, declare it, require it, demand it. And that’s us.
We must join the groups who move in the direction we ourselves want this country to go. We must embrace again the inclusivity, the civility, the compassion and the intellectual competence that made the United States a model of a global world. And as good citizens of that world, we must pledge ourselves to do what the humanity of the whole globe and all its peoples requires of us.
Finally, we must support a public press that keeps the traditional moral compass of the nation clearly in sight, a beacon to steer by, the measure of a godly people.
From where I stand, it is a moment that calls us all to the kind of public protest it will take to make America, America again. The ecological community, the social welfare community, the educational community and the political system need us as never before in our lifetime. Join something and make your voice heard.
As Dorothy Day is credited with saying, “No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”
Back to Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast’s TED talk when he underscored his belief that it is not experiences of blessing or joy that make us grateful, but rather gratefulness that makes us joyful. He added that practicing gratefulness allows us to see each given moment as a gift, as an opportunity to be wrapped in gratitude — especially as we come to know the Giver of gifts.
Due to the conflict that is in our nation, this Thanksgiving we can be:
Angry
Paralyzed
Withdrawn because of insults and anger
OR,
We can choose to engage
Choose to be part of the solution
And most importantly!
Be Grateful.
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