Thanksgiving 2020 Sucks. And We Should Be Thankful For It Anyway.
Yes, it could be better. But it could be worse, too. Give thanks.
History is a long series of inflection points where advances take place overnight and catastrophes are averted by razor-thin margins.
For instance: You may never have heard of Vasili Arkhipov or Stanislav Petrov, but you owe your life to these two men who, in two completely unrelated instances that took place 21 years apart, singlehandedly stopped the United States and the Soviet Union from annihilating each other (and probably the rest of the world) in a nuclear holocaust.
In both cases, the course of human history came down to a single human beingās decision and weāre all here to say āwhewā but thatās just sheer luck. I like to toast these guys on Thanksgiving and express my appreciation for their bravery and levelheadedness in moments of unthinkable stress and terror.
The election three weeks ago didnāt come down to the choice of a single man but to 80 million Americans who made a choice to bring the world a step back from some kind of catastrophe. Certainly, the fate of the United States (as we have come to enjoy it) was probably on the ballot. Iām immensely grateful to everyone who voted Donald Trump out of office.
That said, Iām also grateful that those who voted for Trump have not, as he would seem to prefer, engaged in any sort of insurrection. I say he would āseem to preferā this because his rhetoric is that of someone who believes, and would like his followers to believe, that the election was rife with āfraudā and āriggedā and āstolen.ā
If these charges were literally true, then his followers would not only be justified but indeed expected to pour into the streets to defend their democracy against what would be a coup.
Butāin spite of Trumpās ongoing malignant deceitāat least so far, his followers have resigned themselves to angry and incendiary Parler and Facebook posts. Iām extremely grateful to them for their restraint. Maybe this wonāt continue indefinitely, but I see gratitude as a minute-by-minute, day-by-day, year-by-year activity. If you wait to be grateful until everything is perfect, youāll live out your life perpetually disappointed and unsatisfied. The time to be grateful is always right now.
We mustnāt temper our gratitude because things arenāt as good here as they are in some alternate universe. We ought to express our gratitude for that which we actually have in our lives.
I donāt think Iām overstating anything when I say that people are exhausted.
Theyāre exhausted by the pandemic (both by the practical hardships and the inane public debate which turned public health into a front of the culture war).
Theyāre exhausted by the election drama and the post-election drama.
Theyāre exhausted having to feel awkward, or worse, angry around their friends and relatives with whom they now have such deep disagreement that the divide seems unbridgeable.
Alex Trebek and Eddie Van Halen were both taken by cancer.
And now, even as the vaccine cavalry is riding in, we are told that we still have months more to wait and both the winter and spring holiday seasons to suffer through before we can start hugging one another again.
But in spite of all this, we can experience and express a huge sense of relief and gratitude that indeed there is a vaccine on the way and that the election is over and that whatever homegrown insurgency we may one day have to deal with hasnāt reared its ugly head. And we didnāt all die in a fiery nuclear blast furnace either in the ā60s or in the ā80s or in any of the other close calls that have happened since.
And you can go and revel in the brilliance of both Alex and Eddie and marvel at what they left behind for you as their legacy.
Indeed, even in our imperfect world, there is so much to be grateful for. (When? Yes, yes . . . right now!)
Weāre hereāand weāve dodged another bullet and with a little bit of luck weāll dodge the next one. But if we donāt, if the next one finally finds its way right to our heartāwell, we can figure out what to be grateful for then.
But in the meantime, Iām celebrating right now and encourage you to do the same.
Thank you for everything.
