Thanksgiving

Over at the National Catholic Register, Mark Shea gives a tip of the slouchy, shapeless hat to The Most Grateful Man Who Ever Lived, Gilbert Keith Chesterton -

Chesterton muses on Robinson Crusoe;

After all, the process of making everything that one wants cannot be carried too far in this world. We have all saved something from the ship. At the very least, there was something that Crusoe could not make on the island; there was something Crusoe was forced to steal from the wreck; I mean Crusoe. That precious bale, in any case, he brought ashore; that special cargo called “R. C.,” at least, did not originate in the island... Even the pessimist when he thinks, if he ever does, must realise that he has something to be thankful for: he owes something to the world, as Crusoe did to the ship. You may regard the universe as a wreck: but at least you have saved something from the wreck.

I'm thankful for a lot this year. One is always led to single out this or that, but life is complex and I'm grateful for the grace behind all the complexity. For instance, though I am very thankful once again to have reliable, paying work, for the last few months this work has made it devilishly hard to find time to paint or to write, and so the League seems nearly comatose a year after it was begun. I say seems comatose. I look at it as being less like a coma and more like a long nap. It will take some disciplined effort, though, to wake it and get a mug of hot tea into it. My schedule has grown more rigid and unaccommodating than one of those blue-gloved TSA workers.

I'm grateful to have learned a bit more about beekeeping, recently, and to have made progress on the home brewing front this year.

To say I'm grateful for my family would be an understatement of scandalous proportions.

One more thing for which I'm especially grateful is our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. Jonah Goldberg, writing in the Jewish World Review, gives a perspective on our beloved German Shepherd for which I am very grateful, indeed. As Mr. Goldberg's father wisely observed, "we need more rocks in the river".

Comments

[John Kasaian]

What a wonderful Chesterton qoute! And here's wishing a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday for all my bearded colleagues.

I think Chesterton would be delighted with the american custom of a Thanksgiving Holiday because to give thanks is to be humble, and to be humble is to glimpse into eternity.

[The Pachyderminator]

Thanksgiving had already been instituted (by Abraham Lincoln) in Chesterton's time. Does anyone know if he ever said anything on the subject?