My wife and I had a great Thanksgiving with family in central Ohio. There was food, wine, movies, football and, of course, shopping. We gave thanks for our blessings through prayer. As we drove home, I started to think about blessings and wondered if the reporter that compared Trump with Charles Manson was thankful for anything or was the reporter that went after Pres. Obama’s daughter thankful for anything. Were the NFL players who knelt during the national anthem thankful for anything since they seem to dislike the country that gave them the chance to make millions playing a game?
Our great country is divided by hate and dislike for anything that is different than our perception of what we want. There are those who hate Blacks and those who hate whites. Policemen are despised by many, and we find bias and dislike of religions other than ours. Some hate any form of religion or its symbols and want them removed from public sight. Democrats will not associate with Republicans and visa versa. What are our congressmen and senators, who vote to please their political bias or lobbyists rather than their constituents, thankful for? The news we receive has to be filtered to remove the bias, if possible, before we can believe it. Some news is never reported if it favors the opposite of the reporter’s bias, and then that reporter will tell us about everything that is negative about his or her opposing view. Media outlets that used to be objective and well edited have become pawns of the ideology they favor.
When I got home I had to look in the mirror and ask if I was corrupting the blessings that I am thankful for. If I can point out the errors of others, I have to do the same with myself. This is very hard to do, but if everyone would do this, we might start to heal some of the schisms in our society. Thanksgiving should be a time of giving thanks and reflecting on why we think and act the way we do. It should be a time of atonement for the mistakes that we have made and re-evaluating the facts that we use to form our likes and dislikes. This season and the approaching Advent should be a time of cleansing our souls and being ready for the celebration of Christ’s birthday.
I wish everyone a joyous holiday season and a very Merry Christmas.
-30-