A Special Thanksgiving

Last year’s Thanksgiving message to readers was a quote from Albert Schweitzer:

To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.
---------Albert Schweitzer

When I was in Vietnam, I made a pledge with G-d: Please help me to return home safely and you’ll never hear another complaint. Neither broke the pledge.

An assignment from my 7-year old son’s 2nd grade class is to ask Dad what he’s thankful for on Thanksgiving. I told him that I always celebrate my birthday (I’m amazed, 60 on Sunday, and still feel only part-way there toward keeping my purpose in life.) on Thanksgiving, so I’m thankful for life and the opportunities it brings to be useful and helpful. My son’s reaction: “So you’re thankful for giving and not getting.”

Schweitzer’s quote is to this point, at its most basic: Gratitude is directed at those who “stand behind the action.” Another quote from Schweitzer may clarify:

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

Thanksgiving is a good time to “pass it on,” and think of ways to rekindle others’ flames within, from those laid low by misfortune or oppression, to those on high who may have forgotten their obligations to those who depend upon they using their resources to spread dignity and freedom to be.