Thanks for this reminder of how much or our "history" is really a bunch of stories that rationalize our self concepts...But for the most part we have transformed thanksgiving into a secular celebration of gratitude. Or maybe that is just the story I'm telling myself to rationalize my own behavior!
Kathleen, thank you for returning to Code Red. You always manage to touch my heart and remind me of truths we set aside. Thanksgiving is a joyful time in our family, because we use it as an excuse to gather, catch up, relax with one another, and solve (ha!) all of the problems in the world. I will share this blog post to also remind ourselves of the true history of this day and take a moment to honor it.
So glad you are back writing at this substack! I have missed you. Thank you for pouring out your vision of how we might get things right after getting them so wrong, and sharing it so generously with us.
Thanks, Judith! Wow! An ethicist reading Code Red. I hadn't considered the words ethical or ethicist but of course that's at the heart of what I am writing about. Writing about my moral responsibilities without sounding moralizing or morally superior or judgmental is what I am trying to do.
Thanks for your comment!! I agree we've done that about gratitude. But, lurking in the room, is, I believe, an underlying sense of our specialness, our entitlement to the bounty because we are such a unique people, destined to such good fortune and not required to actually DO anything to show that gratitude besides bake a pie, say grace, clear the dishes, hug the cousins. I know your work helps people see their deeper connection to the natural world and all the ways it supports life. Gratitude needs, I believe, to include this deeper understanding as well as our understanding of the injustice and violence which got us the table, the turkey, the land under it. I don't mean I should walk around feeling guilty. I think it means I should be aware and my experience is that that awareness brings a much deeper sense of gratitude.
PS: I recommend highly the book “Dismantling Privilege: An Ethics of Accountability” by feminist ethicist from Holy Cross, Mary Elizabeth Hobgood. I will shard your Code Red with her.
Thanks for this reminder of how much or our "history" is really a bunch of stories that rationalize our self concepts...But for the most part we have transformed thanksgiving into a secular celebration of gratitude. Or maybe that is just the story I'm telling myself to rationalize my own behavior!
Kathleen, thank you for returning to Code Red. You always manage to touch my heart and remind me of truths we set aside. Thanksgiving is a joyful time in our family, because we use it as an excuse to gather, catch up, relax with one another, and solve (ha!) all of the problems in the world. I will share this blog post to also remind ourselves of the true history of this day and take a moment to honor it.
So glad you are back writing at this substack! I have missed you. Thank you for pouring out your vision of how we might get things right after getting them so wrong, and sharing it so generously with us.
Thanks, Judith! Wow! An ethicist reading Code Red. I hadn't considered the words ethical or ethicist but of course that's at the heart of what I am writing about. Writing about my moral responsibilities without sounding moralizing or morally superior or judgmental is what I am trying to do.
Thanks for your comment!! I agree we've done that about gratitude. But, lurking in the room, is, I believe, an underlying sense of our specialness, our entitlement to the bounty because we are such a unique people, destined to such good fortune and not required to actually DO anything to show that gratitude besides bake a pie, say grace, clear the dishes, hug the cousins. I know your work helps people see their deeper connection to the natural world and all the ways it supports life. Gratitude needs, I believe, to include this deeper understanding as well as our understanding of the injustice and violence which got us the table, the turkey, the land under it. I don't mean I should walk around feeling guilty. I think it means I should be aware and my experience is that that awareness brings a much deeper sense of gratitude.
PS: I recommend highly the book “Dismantling Privilege: An Ethics of Accountability” by feminist ethicist from Holy Cross, Mary Elizabeth Hobgood. I will shard your Code Red with her.
Another beautiful reflection, Kathleen. Thank you!