Feeling grateful

Regarding “Thanksgiving is about more than turkey (Opinion),” (Nov. 22): The origin, or fabled origin, of the first Thanksgiving is obviously not our family’s reason for celebration today. We are blessed to live in the greatest country on Earth, and I feel appreciative of our forefathers’ commitment and sacrifice. I am thankful to wake up each morning, have my health, a job, a home and a great family.

My wife and I have three married kids and seven grandchildren. We host and celebrate Thanksgiving the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day so our kids and grandkids can navigate in-law requirements or expectations for the day itself.

We do this at Christmastime too. We serve seafood, fish and shrimp with sides, snacks, appetizers and sweets.

Remarkably, we have had perfect attendance for over 30 years.

We also take family pictures, which the kids and grandkids absolutely hate. That is the only required activity of the day.

I hope you and yours had a happy Thanksgiving.

Ken Schulte, Lake Jackson

Forever, the narrative was that the Pilgrims — which includes my family on both sides — were the first on this new soil.

Slaves from previous explorers and Caribbean trade had been here and had learned the Indian language, which is why the Pilgrims could engage. America was built by Africans and American Indians. Somehow, this has gotten lost in biased history.

It appears that history was tampered with to elevate the white Pilgrims, but the Black and indigenous people were played down as lesser characters to the subsequently aggressive Pilgrims.

Sadly, my family was part of this. However, my new Thanksgiving tradition is to upgrade the importance of true history and reveal the corrected history.

It is disheartening when history is distorted and books are banned. All truth should be our first blessing of Thanksgiving.

Grateful thanks should be offered to the indigenous people who provided the framework for crops and water that built America.

Barbara Sunderland Manousso, Houston

This Thanksgiving and holiday season I’m grateful for my family. I’m grateful for, Lord willing, making another birthday and coming up on a new year.

And I’m just grateful to wake up every day in good health and spirit because tomorrow is not promised. Wishing everyone good health and prosperity, and peace in the Middle East and abroad.

Eva Duncan, Houston

Thanksgiving Day is the most important holiday of the year for me. I discovered it in 1978 when I first came to Houston.

I was a graduate student at the University of Houston, and I was invited to my student counselor’s home to celebrate the day.

Thankfully, it was not a commercial celebration but one that went into the spirit of gratitude, a principle that had somehow always been at the core of my being.

On that day, I was very moved by the concept as well as the practical implementation of families getting together and thanking the Lord (I was with a Christian family) for all that they had received.

And that has stuck with me since. Every Thanksgiving Day brings into focus a deep and sincere period of remembrance and gratitude for all that I have received in my life.

We normally have a traditional family Thanksgiving dinner that includes three generations.

This Thanksgiving Day was extra special; it included our daughter’s new family — her mother-in-law, husband and our 5-month-old granddaughter.

The cuisine was a mix of Indian and American delicacies.

But before the family descends on us, on every Thanksgiving Day, I sit in silence and meditate on gratitude.

I’m thankful for the Universal Spirit (aka God). For the love that has been showered on me by people, pets, and the sense of altruism that exists in society.

I am thankful for where we are in human history. A lot has changed during my lifetime, and I am grateful that humankind has made great progress.

I also give thanks to all entities — people, institutions and family — who helped this constant learner have a great start in life.

I am particularly indebted to scholars, writers and journalists who continue to add to my knowledge reservoir that is depleting with my aging brain.

The only prayer I ever taught my daughter (when she was about 2 years old) was focused on gratitude:

Babajai, Babajai, let me sing. Thank you, God, for everything! Babajai was a term my wife used for God.

Pradeep Anand, Houston

At this fraught time in our nation’s history, when some families must avoid discussing politics at their family’s Thanksgiving table, our extended family is blessedly single-minded: We are deeply thankful for what remains of most Americans’ voting rights.

The radical right’s ongoing lurch toward an anarchic autocracy, destroying and rescinding individual rights in their path to perfidy, can thankfully be stopped cold at the next election — the first of the rest of our lives and the chance of our lifetimes.

We are thankful to be able to do our part to confront this continuing hatefilled, unconstitutional war against the democratic soul of our nation.

Now is the time for every good person to come to the aid of our country. Thank you for this opportunity to say it loud and clear.

Britt and Mary Alice Davis, Katy