Who Are We Thanking?

Thanksgiving
Pronunciation: tha[ng](k)s-'gi-vi[ng] also 'tha[ng](k)s-"Function: noun 1: the act of giving thanks,
2: a prayer expressing gratitude, 3a: a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness b capitalized : THANKSGIVING DAY
From http://www.m-w.com

Thanksgiving is coming up in my current part of the world . . . not that I own it. But in any case it gets me thinking. Obviously I'm thankful, and I say that I'm thankful for God. I guess I am. It makes sense, at least, that I would be.

Then I got thinking about how pretty much everybody in this country celebrates Thanksgiving blindly. Or observes it at least. They take time off of work, if nothing else. We give thanks to somebody or something. But if people aren't spiritual, if we don't adhere to a set of divine beliefs and principles, then there are only two options: 1) we're not really observing thanksgiving (since Thanksgiving is a public acknowledgement or celebration of divine goodness) or 2) we have declared we, ourselves, as divine.

I don't like calling anything something that it's not. There's something to be said for the power of words to subconsciously manipulate our understanding of something, in some cases to levels of perversion. My favorite example of this is "church". We have churches all over this country. We have a vast multitude of churches here in this region of the country. The problem is the church is the people . . . it became a building much later. I propose that our misuse of the word church to mean a building has severely altered our understanding of the true definition.

So, I don't particularly want to call Thanksgiving "Thanksgiving" if that's not what it is. And I recognize is not a CHRISTIAN thing, per se, in the world. Given that there are many different divinities that are believed to be, members of ALL faiths can recognize the generosity of their respective divinities . . . but if at the heart, no one recognizes the spiritual significance of this day, let's call it what it really is:

"Look at how much stuff I have accumulated and the position which I have attained" day.

Give Thanks.

Grace.