As “Black Friday” store openings creep earlier and earlier into Thursday, I’m growing concerned that my favorite holiday Thanksgiving is losing its luster. We eat pumpkin pie rather than carve pumpkins like Halloween, and Thanksgiving doesn’t carry the festiveness or allure of a stocking hung by the chimney with care. We gorge on tryptophan, watch professional athletes pummel each other while trying to move a ball towards a goal, and stand in line for televisions. We’ve sort of denigrated the turkey – trying to fry it, mixing it with other fowl in the form of a Turducken (also a registered trademark of Magic Seasoning Blends), pretending that Tofurkey seems normal, and local firm OLSON creating the Hot Durkey for Oscar Meyer.
Why must we rush from Halloween right into Christmas?
Can’t we all just take a break in November and be thankful?
Does Thanksgiving need a re-brand?
The importance of giving thanks is well documented. Books on happiness generally suggest that expressing gratitude, even in a personal journal, leads to an increased level of satisfaction and happiness. Lazlo Bock, senior VP of people operations at Google, believes in it. Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast did a TED talk on it. And science even supports it. When kids make a list about what they’re thankful for, you may be surprised about what you learn about them, like this guy wrote about on Deadspin.
There’s power behind those two magic words – “thank you” – that guest blogger James Lukaszewski wrote about here a few months ago. Thank you notes seem to be kind of a lost art in the digital age. You’d think Jimmy Fallon’s Thank You note segment would make it catch on a little more widely. “Thank you” notes certainly provide a teachable moment to kids about graciousness and thankfulness.
I’m certainly grateful to DuetsBlog for the opportunity write on this top-rated, Blawg 100 blog, grateful to my colleagues who contribute such well-written and often humorous posts, and grateful to all of you for taking some time to read it.
What are you feeling grateful for today and how are you expressing it?