Be Brave and Give Thanks

The official start to the holiday season, Thanksgiving rushes in with a roar. For most, this week is generally a frantic arc of effort. Seemingly endless shopping, cleaning, travel, preparation and cooking have probably already started. It will culminate in a huge feast shared with family and friends, and a few hours of collegiality. Then the holiday weekend will taper off after more cleaning, tearful (or relieved) goodbyes, shopping, and travel. For those of you who have lives that resembled my own for the last 15 years, you’ll jump back into next week furiously trying to make up time lost over the extended weekend.

With all the activity it can feel like there is little time to breath, let alone reflect on what the holiday is, or should be, about. This year, because I am so far from home, I am more poignantly aware of the Thanksgiving spirit than ever before.

I’ve been overseas now for several months. I’ve made connections with Albanians of all walks of life. Generally, everyone I’ve met — from the familiar market vendors, to the lawyers — is kind and generous. I catch small glimpses of daily life in this developing country, and am coming to understand the struggles they are up against. They are not insignificant.

With this in my mind’s eye, and being in the midst of Europe’s recent crisis without knowing how the next few months will unfold, I’m approaching this Thanksgiving taking less for granted. As I prepare to welcome an assortment of Americans to my table this Thursday, I am mindful not of our differences but rather what we have in common.

So, at the risk of being called hokey and/or sentimental (attributes friends have never used to describe me), I want to offer my perspective. Perhaps it will help others pause to take a few minutes this week and consider how unique our shared American experience is.

We are really quite fortunate.

We are part of a tremendously successful and dazzling human experiment! America is 239 years old and counting. It has embraced pluralism and democracy in a manner that has inspired (and, admittedly, repelled) others worldwide. Of course it is not without its flaws. Politicians seem hell-bent on practicing politics instead of exemplifying good leadership and executing policy, and our society is riddled with divisive and controversial issues that cause our political parties to flounder and pull us far from an aggregated whole. But, we’ve built this together and renew our commitment to our core principles and each other every time we safely express our different opinions, cast our opposing votes, and accept the results of an election without fear of revolution, imprisonment, or death. Do not allow fear politics to tarnish our legacy or add to the hostility that is unfortunately already so prevalent throughout the world.

How else are we fortunate? We committed to a system built upon Rule of Law. It is the backbone of our society. Yet, it’s so embedded in our lives we tend to forget it’s there (unless we bump up against it or are lawyers and deal with it every day). Regularly observing a society struggling to create, reform, and implement a legal system after generations of life under what was essentially a police state, I am awestruck by just how amazing our system is — even with all its warts.

We collectively submit to be governed by laws that are daily evaluated, defined, and enforced. Our laws can be, and regularly are, challenged via a number of avenues by anyone with a voice. They reshape according to our evolution as a society, albeit slowly and not without controversy. Some of us may not agree with certain legislation or judicial decisions, but we concede to be bound by them until such time they are repealed. That’s the magic — our unspoken promise, day after day, to carry on together even when we personally feel an injustice, or are in the minority. This is why our fates do not randomly seesaw per the arbitrary whims of individual judges or the personal agendas of corrupt or extremist government officials.

This is also why our society has developed to the point of meeting such fundamental needs that we rarely pause to acknowledge them:

• Infrastructure. We have safe drinking water, reliable electricity, paved highways and roads, airports, railways, shipping, public transportation systems, and trash, recycling, and sewage disposal systems! All of these are regulated and maintained for safety and functionality. I never met anyone at home who tragically lost a child because he stepped off a bus, coming home one afternoon, onto a live wire in the middle of the city.

• Healthcare. For all its ridiculous expense and mind-boggling administration, our healthcare system revolves around top standards of care. Simple procedures like washing hands with soap, wearing gloves, and sterilizing basic instruments are assumed. Parents do not question whether to take their children in for a routine injection for fear of them contracting a superbug, lapsing into septic shock, and fighting for their lives.
• First responders. We have them! Not only do we have them, they are trained and proud to respond to emergency calls. Men and women who will not triage injuries based upon the amount of cash the victims have on hand, or slow their response because of some distant family entanglement the victim has with a cousin.
• Education. To my mind, there is nothing more important to the future of our country and world than the education of our children — both genders. Free-thinking, analytic, innovative, accepting, diverse, expressive minds to navigate through the complex legacy they will inherit. Be grateful that we live in a society that strives for gender equality (yes, we’re still working towards it), places education at a premium, and has teachers willing to work for relatively little pay and with extreme personal commitment to make that a reality.

There are countless other virtues of our way of life that we too often forget to celebrate, and I do not mean to minimize any by failing to specifically name them here. My point is simple. As we gather this year to celebrate a uniquely American holiday, let’s not forget how we are unique. We — who live such frenzied lives, have our own hardships at home, too readily argue, criticize, and call out each other’s failings and differences— are all connected and supported by a web of our own creation. The strength of that web depends on each of us. This American experiment started 239 years ago and continues to build and evolve today.

At a time when the world seems to be headed into new and unpredictably dark challenges, take time this week to appreciate our unity. Do not resign to live in fear. Escape from your day-to-day silos. Smile at a stranger. Invite your neighbor for coffee. Offer to help someone visibly in need. Pay it forward in some manner.

Be kind, loving, and genuine. We all play a part in our collective success, even those of us thousands of miles away. Embrace our diversity, values, and the special bond we share as Americans. Don’t shun it. Be brave, look around at each other, and give thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving.