Giving thanks for our blessings

What is thanksgiving? Turkey dinners and the multi-colored panorama of an enthusiastic crowd at a football stadium?

No. More than anything these are indications on a seasonal barometer, telling us that autumn, in many ways the finest time of year, is ending. It will be missed.

More than 300 years ago, a small band of Pilgrims gathered to thank God for the fruits of their labor on the unkind topography of New England. They realized that thanksgiving is a promise — a promise by each to continue to work for the common good as he had worked for the harvest they were celebrating.

Today, and in all the todays from now until the end of time, there is and there will be no essential difference in the prayers of thanks that man will make, whether he prod the earth with a wooden plow or span the continent in a jet.

Though we say the world is shrinking, the Pilgrim’s mile was no different than the one we know today. As he labored, he thought about the same things we do — being healthy, being happy, and choosing the right thing to do.

Now as then, an individual must choose that right thing. He must promise within himself what he owes his maker and his fellow man, This obligation cannot be lifted from him by governments, by pigeon-holed jobs, or by any of the scientific marvels which multiply our creature comforts so rapidly.

The essence of thanksgiving cannot be restricted to one day in the fall. In its spiritual and physical implications, it is always with-those who make the decisions and do the work....

And so the nation has set aside a day to offer its grand prayers of thanks and to honor that group of men and women whose difficult labor so many years ago helped start it all.

Amercans may rightly sit this Thanksgiving Day at festive tables because they have helped make this land what it is — perpetuation of the Pilgrim dream of freedom and plenty. Americans have adopted the positive, active role of thanksgiving.

For this we are thankful.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.