Still the Shining City Upon the Hill
Source: Jennie Augusta Brownscombe [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
More Than Contruction Paper Pilgram Hats
Those of us who get past our 4th grade rendition of the first thanksgiving dressed as Native Americans or Pilgrims may actually wonder about what are we actually reenacting at our dinner tables every November. Native Americans , like all peoples who subsidence farm, had harvest festivals that gave thanks for the bounty of the earth. The Spaniards, who settled in areas of Texas observed community feasts. They did this long before Squanto helped any Englishmen inspired by Calvin plant corn.
Striving for simple Hearth and Home
They were thankful for the bounty of the land, unlike some of their countryman.Spaniards determined to settle and make a life of hearth and home in a new land. They were thankful for the bounty that made the trip worth it.
Thanksgiving may be a national holiday, that in the end was a 19th century remembrance, of many community meals. A centuries old from a time when life on this continent could not be lived by men and the individual households., Life had to be lived in tight, sometimes forted ,communities. Places we people worked for many a generations; to create places of potential bounty and relative security. The kind of places, that those denied a better life at home, moved .They ran to a life of hardship, disease, and death for a few seasons. One season finally these men and women created a place individual families could survive and prosper.
Our Quiet Quest
It did not matter if it was a quest for personal adventure, freedom, or greed. These immigrants left it all behind and were moved sheer circumstance to the New World. From the first Native Americans crossing the Bering Straits, Irish coming on ships from dirty hovels, to the Hispanics crossing dangerous deserts to come to the Unitized States ;we went blindly onward. Even those humans, stolen from the shores of Africa, became something magnificent .The quest of freedom is something, we collectively seek. The Americans are a new, diverse, and imperfect ,but progressive people. It is a glorious fact we all can be thankful for.
We created a space where men and women can better their lot. Common folk were not driven to become the tycoons of high Victorian capitalist lore We came driven to overcome horrendous difficult for the joy of simple and secure homes. Our ancestors were driven to live little dreams of farms, shops, and schools. Dreams that incrementally lead to vibrant cities, the ability to feed the world, and to retrieve rocks from Mars.
Irish Immigrants about 1910 Kansas City
Source: Jennie Augusta Brownscombe [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The Cloud of little Dreams
It is in these little dreams of ourselves and our ancestors that we sow the seeds of great things. Yes, we are a confused people, self absorbed, overly religious, and massively consuming. But we are survivors and the products of survivors, We are story tellers of the great wit, painters with the boldest strokes, and saints willing to save the world. We are the best and the worst of the world.We are the story of the world and the fruit of it’s collective best.
All from the little dreams and wish for modest survival on little farms and homes. Heirs of our humble ancestors, and the bounty of yes, even their enslaved labor. For this as the world’s most undue and enterprising people we akin are grateful. It is not the bounty of God’s farm harvest we celebrate, but the enduring glorious imperfect soul of Americans past and present...
The Cloud of Little American Dreams
Source: Flip Schulke, 1930-2008, Photographer (NARA record: 2435383)
Thankful to Be Still The Only Shining City Upon the Hill
There are some that would argue that our thanks are for an America past. A past of great political means. They believe greatness was created when the masses believed that we were the shining city up on the hill. When we were the political Zion for the world. That all of our wealth and radical individualism has created a weak unfocused people..Americans who will fade into history.They say we are a people who have lost sight of our manifest destiny. However, such ideas are far from any current or foreseeable truth.
We are a people. We are a defined people. We share values that the world envies and despises.They do so in a collective breath. We are the people who always move forward . We make pilgrims progress towards justice, prosperity, and hope. It does not matter if your individual politic is leftist, conservative, or ambivalent. You are part of this movement.
It does not matter if wealth, religion, or desire for common familial love motivates us. We are blessed to have the ability to be the greatest blessing to the whole of God’s known creation.
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