Celebrating what matters today, every day
Thanksgiving is like a family portrait, suffused with the warmth and glow of togetherness. The holiday gives us time to collect ourselves before another year, another chapter, closes.
And, hopefully, we get to do it in the best of all possible settings, in the warm cocoon of our family and friends.
“Forever on Thanksgiving day the heart will find the pathway home,” the poet Wilbur D. Nesbit said.
For many, family is both a palpable presence and an emotional state, a harbor in the often turbulent waters we try to navigate. This has been a rough year, with war abroad and turmoil at home — inflation, violence, political toxicity. But we have each other.
“I am grateful for what I am and have,” Henry David Thoreau said. “My Thanksgiving is perpetual.”
For all our problems, travel should be much less burdensome than it has been the last few years, when the pandemic torpedoed travel plans for millions.
Almost 80 million Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and while medical officials encourage us to continue wearing masks and social distancing, experts indicate that cases are dropping throughout the country.
But we must remain vigilant. “The biggest way to protect yourself and others is to stay on top of your shots,” Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonary medicine doctor at Cleveland Clinic, said.
The drop in COVID-19 cases is partly responsible for the 5 percent increase in airline bookings this Thanksgiving, according to market analysts, although inflation may impact travel plans, whether by plane or car.
“Unfortunately, Americans are seeing rising gas prices and expensive flights and understand they are going to have to pay significantly more this year to travel for Thanksgiving,” Eric Jones of the Vacationer, an online travel guide, said.
Despite the drop in COVID cases, we can never forget the heartache of families whose tables will be missing loved ones this year. More than 1 million Americans have died during the pandemic, a staggering number.
“We mark a tragic milestone,” President Joe Biden said as the United States approached 1 million deaths last summer. “One million empty chairs around the family dinner table, irreplaceable losses that each leave behind a family or community forever changed because of this pandemic.”
We must also remember the dozens of victims who were murdered in senseless mass shootings, including
Reflecting on a difficult year makes our blessings even more precious
the 21 lives lost at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. It is impossible to provide solace for those touched by these tragedies, for no words or acts, no matter how heartfelt, can fill the void in their hearts. Grief will haunt their tables today — and every day.
These tragedies — and countless others — should lead us to reassess our lives, our goals and values. Family, in these trying times, is more important than ever, and every moment we have together is consequential. We know that intuitively, but research supports the notions.
“Over the past 20 years, researchers have confirmed what parents have known for a long time: Sharing a family meal is good for the spirit, the brain and the health of all family members,” Dr. Anne K. Fishel, a clinical psychologist who is director of the Family Dinner Project, said.
Today, perhaps more than ever, we are grateful for family. Little moments grow into big moments, and what seems inconsequential today, as transitory as a shooting star, may acquire resonance as the years pass. That is life, and that is Thanksgiving.
As we gather at the dinner table, few of us will experience anything earth-shattering, and yet that is the point — how something so simple and quiet can have such a profound impact on our lives. Family, love and understanding — these are the things we celebrate today, and should celebrate every day. Happy Thanksgiving.