Today is Thanksgiving, a
secular holiday to be sure, but a sacred one for Americans.
Many of us are writing
about the things that we are thankful for, and that is nice.
The expression of
gratitude is always welcome, even gratitude expressed in general for the many
things we receive from those we love, by whom we are loved, that make our lives
more comfortable, more challenging, more meaningful.
To express gratitude in
this way is to, is to make one’s self humble, to acknowledge our reliance on
others for making us who we are.
In theology there is
something known as the apophatic
tradition. In this tradition it is understood that God, the creator of all that
is, that God dwells in a place beyond all human understanding, shrouded in
mystery, in the great cloud of un-knowing.
According to the apophatic tradition, no one can speak
affirmatively as to what or who God is, because God, the infinite will not be
circumscribed by language. There are no positive assertions about the nature of
the Divine, there is only the via
negativa; the way of saying what God is not.
This year I will forgo
the giving of thanks, even though I am truly grateful for everyone in our
lives. I will be selfish and tell you all what I am not thankful for.
I am not thankful that
there is no peace in the world,
In
Syria, from where millions of people are fleeing their homes
In
Palestine, where there is apartheid
In
America, where we are divided by class, culture, color
I am not thankful for white
supremacy, and domestic terrorism
I am not thankful for
terrorism anywhere
I
am not thankful for the religious fundamentalism that drives it
I am thankful neither for the fear
that spawns it, nor for the fear it creates
I am not thankful that
there is hunger in our bountiful world
I am not thankful for the greed, for the sloth, and for
the bad public policy that foster it
I am not thankful for
willful ignorance, for anti-rational, anti-intellectual, demagoguery
I am not thankful for the cultural relativism that has
promoted it, for anti-objectivism
I am not thankful for liars
I am not thankful for
Donald Trump, for Ted Cruz, for Ben Carson
I
am not thankful for Fox News
