In the southeastern United States, the climate is unmistakably subtropic. That means high temperatures and equally high humidity. Think weather conditions similar to the oven setting bake with a high probability of hurricanes. With that said, the cooler, drier fall and winter months are my favorite times of the year. Throw in fall food, sweaters, and the holidays, and life in Florida is almost livable.

With shorter daylight hours, holiday prep, and increased seasonal events, day-to-day events transform November and December into a breakneck downhill race to the new year. Personally, I prefer Thanksgiving to the commercial Christmas season. But that’s not to say Thanksgiving is free and clear of issues.

Due to an increased interest in facilitating racial equity via truth and reconciliation, more people are avoiding long-accepted fairy tale versions of our American history and delving into more factual accounts. Thanksgiving is a prime example. The sanitized versions of British colonists sitting down for a communal harvest feast with a group of their indigenous neighbors at that first Thanksgiving are a little too idealized, much like those ubiquitous Publix supermarket commercials.

To leap from the harvest feast of 1621 to Thanksgiving 2022 without considering the impact of colonization on American Indians is problematic at best. Survey descendants of the colonists, and many will tell you things have worked out pretty well for them. But speak with the descendants of Wampanoag and the descendants of other Native Americans, and a different story emerges; an unflattering saga of encroachment, attacks, broken treaties, stolen land, long and bloody wars, genocide, and more.

This awakening to embrace the truth of America’s past isn’t rooted in a desire to shame white people or make them public enemy number one. I am not an American Indian, nor do I presume to speak on their behalf, but it seems to me that the issue isn’t wishing someone a happy Thanksgiving. The perpetuation of lore that fails to acknowledge the cultural and physical extermination of approximately 130 million American Indians is the issue.

What do we do with the fourth Thursday in November? I’m not sure. Perhaps making the lives of today’s American Indians whole via reparations, restored and protected lands, and increased education about their culture would be a good start.

Since 1970, Indigenous people & their allies have gathered at noon on Cole's Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning on the US Thanksgiving holiday. Many Native people do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims & other European settlers. Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands and the erasure of Native cultures. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Indigenous ancestors and Native resilience. It is a day of remembrance and spiritual connection, as well as a protest against the racism and oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience worldwide. —United American Indians of New England

Giving thanks for harvests did not originate in America. This type of festival has existed for thousands of years in various cultures around the world. In fact, Thanksgiving involves themes similar the ancient Jewish festival of Sukkot.

Setting feasting aside, I approach the day as a time for being grateful. Thankful, grateful what’s the difference? It may sound like semantics, but there’s a noticeable difference between being grateful and being thankful. Gratitude is an action aimed at another person to show appreciation or return kindness, where thankfulness is a state of being, an internal feeling of pleasure and relief. Another way to distinguish between the two is that thankfulness (the feeling) prompts gratefulness (the act).

Thankfulness provides the impetus for me to surrender my annoyance with others. It’s the antidote to keeping score of rights and wrongs. It also nudges me to step back and take a broader view of the world—not through rose-colored glasses of denial—but through clear lenses of objectivity. In both instances and others, the result is an outward expression or demonstration of appreciation and/or kindness.

Ultimately, gratitude often calls me to live out the tenet I cling to, the call to love one another. But the simple truth is that I can’t access thankfulness, express gratitude, or summon love toward another person until I’ve recognized their inherent humanity and value.

May you and yours have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Love one another.

Clay Rivers
OHF Weekly Editor-in-Chief