In November of 1621, the pilgrims celebrated the fact that they had survived:
survived on the new continent for a year.
Their generous indigenous neighbors had welcomed them,
Their crops had produced enough to feed them,
including new world crops, like corn and sweet potatoes
and they had new world game to eat, like turkey.
Thanksgiving was a celebration of survival.

400 years ago, the pilgrims were not celebrating.
They were praying.
They were planting.
And they were wondering if they would live or die during the months ahead.

This year we are not as much like the celebrants of 1621,
as we are like those who worried about their survival in 1620.

This year, in November of 2020, we’re in the middle of a pandemic.
In order to survive this year, which many already have not,
we have to stay away from each other and wear masks when we’re out in public.
We have to avoid our dearest family members
and give up those traditions we feel so attached to,
even as we wonder if our businesses and our healthcare system
and our entire economy will remain intact.
Even as we worry about our society as a whole,
our democracy,
our justice system,
our system of checks and balances,
our right to fair and free elections,
and human decency, for God’s sake.

Even in the midst of this, it is our very lives we must consider.

This year as we hunker down for the approaching winter
as we take stock of our many blessings
let’s also take stock of our risk factors,
and the safety of our family, friends, and neighbors.
Let’s choose to survive, rather than demanding to have our pie together
out of a deep sense of tradition and entitlement.

Let’s remember
Thanksgiving wasn’t even a national holiday until 1863.
(Thank you, President Lincoln.)

Personally
I’m hopeful that we’ll have many things to celebrate next year:
a new era of hope and justice,
new medicines and vaccines to keep us safe,
an end to the pandemic, globally, and a restoration of our economy,
and a restoration of our dignity among the nations of the world.

I’m hopeful that we will have:
new and reformed laws to protect our citizens against violence and oppression,
restorative justice for those who have been persecuted or taken from their families,
a surge of new jobs in clean energy and improved infrastructure,
and many new laws and reforms to support social and environmental justice.

This year let’s call it “Hopesgiving”
Hopes-giving
Because we’re in a time of hoping and waiting
in order to survive,
but what we can GIVE each other this year is hope.

Let us learn to live and let live, literally.

I hope that you, your family and your loved ones are safe.
Happy Hopesgiving.