Serving up a bit of gratitude

Mmmm. Thanksgiving Day.

Not many things can warm the heart or fill the tummy like a good

Thanksgiving Day meal with family and friends.

But the reality of the holiday is that while many of us are

blessed with heaping portions of fortune and good health, there is

plenty of poverty and blight to fill up our plates, as well.

Those who started the first Thanksgiving knew well of life’s cruel

twists and turns.

Thanksgiving dates back 400 years ago to Massachusetts, when many

of the Pilgrims who had arrived in the New World in the autumn of

1620 were unable to grow crops and more than half died from disease.

The next spring, the local Iroquois Indians taught the settlers

how to grow corn and other crops and how to hunt and fish. By the

fall of 1621, a bountiful harvest of corn, barley, beans and pumpkins

was to be had. The colonists invited the Iroquois for a dinner of

thanks, roasting deer and turkey to go with the rest of bounty.

Thus started an American tradition that is alive and well today.

In Newport-Mesa, charities get their share of blame. Many claim

they are havens for bad elements and magnets for the poor.

But on this day of thanks, we would like to take extend our

gratitude to those who make life better for our community’s less

fortunate and continue the tradition started by our nation’s

founders.

To the soup kitchens and the churches, to the school teachers and

the medical professionals who deal with life’s hardship on a daily

level, we thank you.

Every year, many spend Thanksgiving Day away from family and loved

ones. They work soup lines and give away turkeys to needy families.

It’s a labor of love and, in some cases, we acknowledge, a chance for

publicity, but there’s little doubt that the spirit of giving comes

alive each and every year on this fourth Thursday of November, just

as it did 400 years ago.

Can and should we do more? Of course we can and we probably

should, but if there is but one day that we stop and reflect on our

gifts and how blessed and lucky we are, so be it.

Here’s to hoping that Thanksgiving Day will always stand for more

than just a basting turkey with the trimmings and football. That it

is more than just pumpkin pie, the Macy’s Parade and a day to spend

away from the office.

Happy Thanksgiving Day, Newport-Mesa, we are grateful for you all.