Recession Thanks

Thanksgiving, for most, is an easy holiday. For those people, there are always plenty of things to be thankful about - first paychecks, new cars to go along with new licenses, Mom, Dad, Aunts, Uncles, yeah, yeah, and now that that’s over, I’d like to start being grateful for this pie over here, too. Those were most years, though. This year, with America still in the midst of a recession, there are going to be less paychecks to go around, less cars for newly minted eager drivers, a great deal less of many of the things we give thanks for. This Thanksgiving, what exactly are you supposed to say at the dinner table, “I’m grateful for being able to avoid the 6% chance of a crash that I would have risked had someone given in and lent me that two hundred for a truck?”

Well, maybe not. The Pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving months after a brutal winter that killed almost half of their colony, and yet they still managed to enjoy the day. That was nearly four hundred years ago, but perhaps we will learn something besides not investing in General Motors from the current state of the economy. Not gratitude, merely something more, a little more emotion behind the words; a lesson not everyone needs to learn, but maybe for someone for whom new cars are par for the course, a sudden inability to roll at eyes at Hallmark sentiments of gratitude. Maybe. Who knows? Or maybe they will be inspired, will donate, help others…

Or maybe, we’ll be stuck with a bunch of people whining this Thanksgiving. Though even I’m not that pessimistic.