I was telling a friend recently that all historical artifices aside, Thanksgiving is a pretty great holiday. After all, there aren't many these days that instead of manifesting themselves through the consumption of inane Hallmark cards and shopping mall trifles, call, instead, for communal thanks—and the company of those near and dear. I didn't grow up with Thanksgiving, so I've always viewed it through the (bemused) lens of an anthropologist. I admit I've never fully celebrated either—this is the first year I plan to actively participate. Bring on the stuffing!
The 12 months that have passed since this time last year have been rather momentous for me personally, and while there were certainly trying times, overall, this has been a pretty fantastic year. I'm particularly thankful for the hard-earned lessons I've learned in this first year of adult independence.
In this rather public forum, though, it's probably a better use of my time to share that which I am thankful for that has affected us all. This past year of political campaigning has brought to the forefront of national discourse a kind of civic engagement among all echelons of American society that's unparalleled in our generation, and from what I can tell, most other recent generations. There's something to be said about the fact that no matter which side you were on (and it must be said that I don't believe there are just two sides, divided along partisan lines; there are many more nuanced sides to align ourselves with) change, progress, and hope were defining mantras. I am thankful that America got caught up in a web of idealism. While I don't believe that's the web we want to be stuck in now that the election is over, allowing ourselves to cast cynicism aside for a short while, after these eight terrible years of Bush-Cheney, showed that at its core, America still yearns and is willing to work for the progress it so dearly needs.
I am thankful, then, that we know what the United States is capable of, idealistically. I am thankful for this because as we sit at the brink—or, more likely, the deepening depths—of an economic recession that has already knocked over every pillar that was expected to be among the last to fall, we're going to need to remember what we want and need so that we can actually fight for it to happen, particularly as a new president and Congress take the reins of our new course.
I wonder where the hell we're going to be in Thanksgiving 2009. I'd like to say the worst will be over by then, but my economically-inclined friends have given me little reason to believe that will be the case. I think this country, and every other nation in this increasingly interconnected world, is set to face trying times for quite a while.
I want to believe, however, that even though for many Thanksgivings to come, more of us will be giving thanks for things most of us haven't had to consider in the past—stable employment, for one—good will come from this. Just as the last eight years of governmental incompetence paved the way for the idealism of the 2008 presidential campaign and the election of Barack Obama, the economic recession will, I hope, breed the ingenuity necessary to redirect our efforts to the most pressing issues. We might just emerge from this crisis with many of our other long-brewing crises solved.
-- Daniela Perdomo
(Cartoon from nataliedee.com)
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