[Oe List ...] Thanksgiving musing

Tue Nov 20 04:51:28 PST 2012

The usual caveat: curious, welcome; not, see you at the bend.

j'aime la vie

Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!

-----Original Message-----
From: Jaime R Vergara <jrvergarajr2031 at aol.com>
To: jayvee_vallejera <jayvee_vallejera at saipantribune.com>; mark_rabago <mark_rabago at saipantribune.com>; editor <editor at saipantribune.com>
Sent: Tue, Nov 20, 2012 8:48 pm
Subject: For Thursday

T-Day

Three perspectives underlie the structure of Christian thoughtin the last two millennia.  The mostfamiliar one is transcendence where paradise in the metaphor of heaven islocated elsewhere than where we currently are. Then there is earthly immanence, the transformation that occurs when oneunconditionally embraces the fullness of life in the here-and-now.  The third is the spirit of freedom,transparent exercise of responsibility in the realm of finite historicalchoices.

In ritual, these perspectives were intoned in the medievalformula of naming realities, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and theHoly Ghost!"  In current parlance,that would be rehearsing the role of the Terminator, the Transformer, and theTurkey!

Human civilization ritualize certain events like theculmination of a harvest, the completion of a monumental task, or just thesatisfaction over the passing of a crisis. Gratitude is a garden variety of human virtue.  It joins other modes of affirmed consciousnessin the practices of personal confession, societal petition, and relationalintercession, long observed in prayerful communities.

We tarry along the religious path of this national holidaybecause most Americans gather around family tables this day in the mythology ofthe first perspective.  In such spiritbegan the annual celebration after Abraham Lincoln in 1863 proclaimed anational day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father whodwelleth in Heaven".

Brownscombe 1914 painting of Plymouth settlers feastingwith natives has become a familiar visual to accounts.  Historians tell of 53 Plymouth settlers and90 Indians holding a three-day feast after the settlers survived their firstyear of harsh winter.  (Revisionistspoint out that narratives, at least, need to acknowledge how the native residentswere later turned into targets on T-day's turkey shoots!)

FDR nailed the date down to the fourth Thursday ofNovember, to settle the uncertainty of day on those years when there are fiveThursdays in November.  Not all Statescomplied.  It became a joke that whenthere were five Thursday, observance on the fourth made it Democratic while onthe fifth, Republican.

The celebration has commercially evolved into a season ofshopping, marked by Macy's Parade, merrily rolls down the store aisles until waypast New Year, with the apex reached with Santa's gifts under the Tannenbaum boughtand wrapped before Christmas eve.  Theintrusion of the dollar into the equation watered down the religious emphasisspecifically made Christian in the presidential proclamations of Presbyterianpastor's son Grover Cleveland and staunch Methodist William McKinley.

Gerald Ford made the day totally secular skewing previousreferences to providence in his proclamation.  The media was not pleased.  Ford lost the next election.  Ronald Reagan chuckled the"pardoning" of the proffered turkey, and George H. W. Bush made thepractice a permanent fixture in the annual presidential ritual.  Bill Clinton emphasized gratitude to thosewho serve to promote the American vision and implement its mission.  George W. Bush took the task of internationalpeace into the war room on terror after 9/11. Obama was criticized for not thanking "God" in hisproclamation of 2011.  American sentimentshifted.  Obama got reelected.  

Along with many College and Professional Sports' events,Holiday movies get a Thanksgiving premiere to test their weight in the boxoffice.  The pumpkin pie remains a dinnerstaple but the contest is in the field on the biggest and heaviest varietyraised.  Meanwhile, the wild turkey joinsthe list of the endangered specie.  Thet-bird that graces holiday tables lost its thunder and smell, coming from coopswhere they are fattened for weight.  Themeat hardly emits the familiar fragrant fowl flavor and aroma characteristic ofthe wild bird in the prairies now relegated to the trademark of a Bourbon.

Thanksgiving Day in China has all the trappings ofwestern commercial symbols devoid of historical moorings.  In Saipan, we render obeisance toprovidential divinity in the cosmic realm. It is a matter of course but irrelevant. In my campus building, gratitude is echoed by the Anshallah of Muslims from Africa, the Middle East, South-SoutheastAsia who share my building's morning elevator ride with their gracious salutationsof Salaam Malaikom! Grace drapes thediversity.

Save for a lone Protestant evangelical, we do not seemuch of the transformative messianic impulse, amazingly gracious, orotherwise.  The once 'puritanical' CPC battlescorruption within its ranks, with President Hu Jintao declaring at the recent PartyCongress that if the practice is not curtailed, it will be the death knell ofthe Party and the government in the next decade.  The hyperbole on service reminiscent of Mao'svaunted service is met by a skeptical smirk. The current gap of income distribution is deep and wide.  That's all that seem to matter in a newlyaffluent and resurgent China.

The Terminator remained with Ahnold in California.  The Transformer is still a toy but gotanimated in the fight between the autobots and the decepticons.  As for my gobble gobble, I will stick with theturkey!

 j'aime la vie

Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate.  In all, Celebrate!

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