For the fifth sixth year in a row... If the Wall Street Journal
has been running the same piece since 1961 I figure I can get by with
re-runs, too. I'm not quite as good as they are, though. But
seriously: Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Gentle Reader. I’m going to be lazy today and re-run what I said last year (in part...there was more), mainly coz (a) it’s all true and (b) I’m fresh out of original i-deers. So…from Turkey-Day-2006:
Of all the things I’m thankful for on this day…family, friends, reasonable health… I thank God most of all for making me an American. Most all of the good things in my life begin and end with that one single fact.
You could do much worse today than read the editorial the WSJ has published every Thanksgiving since 1961. An excerpt:
We can remind ourselves that for all our social discord we yet remain the longest enduring society of free men governing themselves without benefit of kings or dictators. Being so, we are the marvel and the mystery of the world, for that enduring liberty is no less a blessing than the abundance of the earth.
And we might remind ourselves also, that if those men setting out from Delftshaven had been daunted by the troubles they saw around them, then we could not this autumn be thankful for a fair land.
The images come from Thanksgiving Corner, which has a great collection of Thanksgiving wallpaper. Normally I'd only post a single topical image, but I was so taken with the second image that I had to post it. Shades of Ben Franklin, and all that.As true today as it was back in 1961.
Happy Thanksgiving, Buck!
ReplyDeleteHope you and your family are well and that you have a wonderful time together.
Thanks for the addition again of the editorial from the WSJ. I love pondering over those Pilgrims from long ago. They helped set us off on the right foot, so to speak.
"And we might remind ourselves also, that if those men setting out from Delftshaven had been daunted by the troubles they saw around them, then we could not this autumn be thankful for a fair land."
It's too bad how few people today know the difference between the Pilgrims and the Puritans, isn't it? The two names are so often used interchangeably - and yet there was a world of difference between them.
Here is a great little synopsis of who the Pilgrims were that might surprise some folks.
(This is a memorial address given by my grandmother's brother, Robert Merrill)
http://www.sail1620.org/history/articles/109-our-pilgrim-heritage.html
If you ever get a chance to see the 1952 movie Pilgrim Adventure, it's worth it to listen to the music score, watch the amazing special effects of the storm at sea and the humorous bit of Miles Standish trying to teach the Pilgrim men how to load and shoot a musket. (I had no idea before how time consuming it was!) The story is mostly Hollywood, though.
A Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, Bec. I hope the boys are home for the holiday and you and Doug have a great, great day. Thanks for that link; it was interesting reading.
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