When I first came to Youngstown, I kept hearing the term food desert. I overheard people saying the downtown was a food desert, that the East side of Youngstown is a food desert. I recently spoke with someone who lives in Steubenville, and one of the first things he said to me was how he lived in a food desert. He told me he is part of a program that feeds 1,800 families each month because they don’t have a car to get to the nearest grocery store. He repeated the number to make sure I understood. Not 1,800 people, 1,800 families. A food desert, in case you didn’t know, is an area where the population does not have access to affordable and healthy food. They may have a McDonald’s or a corner market, but no fresh produce or vegetables.
This time of year we celebrate the harvest. We celebrate bounty, food and fellowship, and the joy of knowing that everyone who comes to the table will be fed, and fed well. It is a wonderful feeling, isn’t it? I think it feels so wonderful because it reminds us of something true, that we spend most of our days forgetting.
It reminds us that there is enough bounty for everyone. There is more than enough food in this city, in this country, in this world (including nations with starvation rates) if we utilized our bounty in new and creative ways. When we remember Thanksgiving this year, I invite you to remember this.
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. As many of you know, it has problematic origins. It represents our historical mistreatment and cruelty of our indigenous sisters and brothers. You may be wondering then, why this is my favorite holiday. This is my favorite holiday, because I think we have yet to fully celebrate it. We are still in the process of trusting that there is certainly enough bounty for everyone. We are still trying to fathom a world where it’s not necessary to kill and displace to enjoy the richness of this earth. We have yet to really celebrate true Thanksgiving. Yet each year, we get another shot at it.
My Thanksgiving day memories are unusual given my childhood as a Jehovah’s Witness. My family would go to Shari’s Restaurant on Thanksgiving, a place similar to Perkins Restaurant.
We would sit and order the standard Thanksgiving fare, but we told ourselves we weren’t really celebrating it, because we were surrounded by people who didn’t seem very celebratory. It was mostly single people or couples, people we imagined didn’t have family nearby, who didn’t want to make much of a fuss for Thanksgiving. But even as a child I remember hearing about the ritual many families do, where they ask each person to express what they’re thankful for. I remember thinking how brilliant that was, even if the responses were not heartfelt.
Thanksgiving is a good idea. I agree with Meister Eckhart that if we only uttered one prayer in our lifetime, it should be “Thank you.” Thank you. I would go a step further than Meister Eckhart, and say this is the essence of the spiritual life…to live with a deepened sense of thank you. It is true that we are surrounded by a rich bounty of sustenance, experience, and beauty. Saying “thank you,” and really meaning it, is the gateway to the connection we’ve always longed for.
There are many people, including ourselves, who are yearning to experience bounty, an ever flowing sense that they have enough.
Our culture tells us the opposite. Many people feel trapped trying to compete to win and then hold on to their piece of bounty, their literal and figurative piece of the pie. We live in a world that says that the only way you’ll get the richness of the harvest is if you find a way to beat the next person to it. Then you better get an insurance policy on that bounty because it might be taken from you from another greedy person. Make sure you get proper legal representation too. You want to protect your bounty. And on and on.Thanksgiving encourages us to give. Having gratitude reminds us that we’re enough, and that we have enough. It reminds us we have more than enough. Gratitude encourages us to share, and participate in a deep and simple truth. From you I receive, to you I give, together we share, and from this we live. I hate to break it to you, but that hymn is not for the children. It’s for us. That is the truth of Thanksgiving, and we can celebrate it each and every day. And we need the reminder – remember Thanksgiving.
