Being Thankful at Thanksgiving

I have been giving alot of thought lately to the concept of giving thanks at Thanksgiving.

Sometimes I wonder..

Are we giving thanks because we are grateful that things are not worse than they could be?

This isn't true thanks, it's relief that we were spared worse misfortune.

Are we thankful that the other guy is worse off than we are (There, but for the grace of God, go I)?

Are we thankful hoping for mercy. (Perhaps if God sees I am thankful he will not continue punishing me, or bad things will stop happening?)

In human society, it is polite and civil to use please and thank you. And without a doubt, there is merit in gratitude. But I think we have to examine where thankfulness is coming from because if we are thankful as a consolation-i.e. at least this and not that, then we are not really thankful. We are relieved things aren't worse.

If we are thankful that the other guy was the one who got fired/laid off/ sick/ injured and these things did not happen to us,then we are also not thankful. We are releived the tragedy was someone else's to bear.

But, that's really nothing to be thankful for, for if it can happen to one, it can happen to another and chances are that your time will come, so what are you thankful for and who are you thanking?

We are thankful we have a job, clothes, food, shelter, family, friends and so on, but this is thankfulness from fear, fear that we may not have these things at some point. And at some point, we won't.

So what are we thankful for in this impermenent plane of existence?

We are thankful only for the moment that we were spared.

We are grateful. But what is grateful? A desperate plea to unknown forces to keep sparing us.

If someone gives us a sweater to keep us warm and then takes it back on the coldest day, what have they given us?

True thankfulness is being grateful to be here at all, rich or poor, sick or healthy, warm or cold, abled or disabled, good times, bad times, success and failure, peace time and war time.

So the best time to give thanks is when you are in the throes of danger, in the midst of turmoil, in the heat of anger and at the last breath of life.

Thank you, for the experience of being here at all.