Thanksgiving: History and Healing in Troubled Times

In the U.S. Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday, a time when family and friends come together, pause in their hectic, perhaps fraught, lives to give thanks and consider their blessings. Gratitude remains a most reliable platform upon which to build the future.

My own gratitude includes my loving family. In a break with my monthly blog, I’d like to share a moving Thanksgiving essay by my son Elliot, published in The New York Times: A Thanksgiving Message in a 1963 Proclamation.

8 Comments

  1. Dave Cook on November 15, 2017 at 11:00 am

    Beautifully written.

  2. Katherine Stephen on November 15, 2017 at 12:52 pm

    Elliot’s essay makes a powerful point which adds to the meaning of Thanksgiving.

  3. chiara macconi on November 16, 2017 at 3:49 am

    interesting and touching…sorry for not having Thanksgiving in my country…unity and harmony are so needed, always
    thanks!

  4. Roxanne on November 16, 2017 at 2:03 pm

    Elliots writing gives ne hope that there is a better future for all of us.Thank you for sharing. wishing you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving

  5. Ciel on November 19, 2017 at 3:01 pm

    Elliot’s essay for Thanksgiving is so fitting to be publish this Thanksgiving Holiday so well written to be read specially by the American population not to forget by all for posterity of mankind.

  6. Ciel on November 19, 2017 at 3:06 pm

    Elliot essay is so timely publish this Thanksgiving Holiday, so well written that should be instilled specially with the American population and for all.

  7. Elizabeth Starcevic on November 20, 2017 at 1:43 pm

    Dear Joanne, Just read your report of the PEN Congress in LVIV and now this essay from your son. Thank you as always for making me think about how the world is going.
    Thanksgiving remains a challenging holiday- as the native peoples of this country still live in poverty and suffer the oil leaks of the trade treaties.
    At a friend’s animal rescue farm the turkeys were fed cranberries and greens and sweet potatoes. They are not destined for eating there.
    As we struggle to keep our clarity in the face of false news – I was sent an interesting article “A Confederate Curriculum. How Miss Millie Taught the Civil War by Jonathan Zimmerman that explores the power of an educational system to create myths.
    Thank you again for your blog. Thanks for many things. Elizabeth

  8. Karen K on November 25, 2017 at 2:32 pm

    How deeply we all should think and cleanse our thoughts and act in a generous and truly neighborly way—a tall order, but not unreachable.

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