tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post7983195463615108205..comments2024-03-27T15:44:43.564-08:00Comments on What Do I Know?: Giving Thanks for What and to Whom?Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10498066938213558757noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-8559716712104842062009-11-26T10:22:47.582-09:002009-11-26T10:22:47.582-09:00...and my apologies for the typos and such. I was ......and my apologies for the typos and such. I was fixing our dinner at the same time.Jacob Dugan-Brausehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06287631724339961459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30897652.post-4102635556050763082009-11-26T09:30:47.712-09:002009-11-26T09:30:47.712-09:00Perspective at work once again.
Gene and I spent ...Perspective at work once again.<br /><br />Gene and I spent our annual gathering with Americans, being with Americans, at St Paul's Cathedral in London today--an intimate gathering with the ambassador of roughly 3,000 Americans.<br /><br />We began doing this while George W was in office as a way to commemorate something good about our natal land. It helped. At these gatherings we invariably meet the various tribes of this nation. I can tell you, each year, when singing 'America, the Beautiful', we check what it is to still have hope in that song's words.<br /><br />It is our moment to think about what it means to be part of the experiment that was, and is, the United States of America. Food be damned. Gatherings be done. For us, it's become a necessary remembrance of the simple human gesture of being thankful for our time on this earth.<br /><br />Thanksgiving has moved far beyond historical myth for us, beyond what is eaten or what games are on. It is an essentially spiritual occasion, that can be jointly celebrated by any and all. I have often said that the day America's gay and lesbian children can sit at the Thanksgiving Day table with their chosen families, loved and valued... oh, you get the point.<br /><br />We each bring our story to this great celebration. That is why it's needed as it is the stuff which unites us against all the things that insist in our differences.<br /><br />The myth of America is that its story somehow existed without invention. Of course it was fashioned. Every nation, every tribe, every religion creates its story. If we know that the traditional Indian welfare story is flawed, then its time to change it.<br /><br />It is must change. More and more of us refer to George Washington's day of thanks, of Lincoln setting aside a day of thanks during the American Civil War. Focus on that story and also teach how it was possible for one people to war against another, time and yet time again, all over this world. Political boundaries have forever shifted because of force. The world will over white mans' guilt as irrelevant. Other nations are setting right the stories we told to justify dominance.<br /><br />I won't try to discuss meat. Not now or here. We're having duck, free-range until it gave its life for our sins. All other days, we veg.<br /><br />Thanksgiving. That small best of what I still value about the country I once lived in. If you don't like it, stuff it (nicely, of course).<br /><br />Happy Thanksgiving! and may this day find you and yours knowing you are wealthy in troubles and happiness, for that is life. Recount both, be thankful for all you have and tell someone you love them be it God, a child or the person sitting next to you.<br /><br />Peace be upon your houses and here endeth this epistle.Jacob Dugan-Brausehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06287631724339961459noreply@blogger.com