It’s Thanksgiving and I am supposed to give thanks. Today is a bittersweet day. Bitter, because life at home has been hard lately. Sweet, because I have a lot to thank for, still. The green wave that spurred this blog and other planet saving adventures, is feeding my creativity, and my need to contribute in a meaningful way. And for that, I am incredibly grateful.
This first holiday of the season is also a time to reflect on the tendency I feel creeping inside, of equating celebration with spending and unbridled consumption. All the green (earth) resolutions, the new habits I have slowly taken on, are at risk of getting wiped out, in one green (dollar) slate. In my mind, ‘celebrate’ takes me to ‘give’ and ‘share’, which is all good. Where it gets derailed, is when I translate ‘give’ into, ‘spend’. I had a similar feeling last time I went on vacations to Paris with the children. In my world, ‘joyful’ does not mix with environmental restraints. Being a responsible green citizen, means work, and austerity, and who wants that, when one is on vacation, or celebrating? Yesterday, I noticed I became very careless with planning my car trips. My priorities shifted from trying to be green, to getting ready for the big event of today.
The green equilibrium I aim to achieve in my own life, is still very fragile, and has not completely taken yet. All it takes is Turkey Day, and I am thrown back to square one. Not quite, actually. One area in which I have made a sustainable change, is shopping. Last night, I watched a commercial for Target, with great dismay. Something about, ‘All stores opening at 6am, be the first one there for one exceptional day of shopping extravaganza’. Last year, I would have gone, and shopped like mad, at Target and all the other clothing stores. This time, I feel disgusted by such consumerism frenzy. Black Friday does deserve its name. The day after tomorrow is a day for morning the loss of the original Thanksgiving spirit.
Maybe today, we can set aside a few minutes to ponder the true meaning of Thanksgiving, as communicated in President George Washington’s national Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789:
“Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country…for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed…and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually…To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.“
In this day, we do have lots to thank for. Our planet is still sustaining us after all. For how long, is the question? Will we continue to consume like mad, or will we relearn to tread lightly over the earth, like Native Americans from pre-colonialism times?
La Marguerite 
George Washington issued this proclamation long ago:
“Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of
November [next] to be devoted by the People of these United States of
America to the service of that great and glorious Creative Spirit of
All That Is and Will Be (if future generations get global warming
under control), which is the beneficent creative enterprise of all the
good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in
rendering unto that spirit of creative life our sincere and humble
thanks—for its kind care and protection of the Earth and the People of
this Country…for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable
interpositions of its creativity which we experienced in the
tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed…and also
that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and
supplications to the great spirit of life and beseech this spirited
enterprise to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable
us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several
and relative duties properly and punctually…To promote the knowledge
and practice of true love and virtue, and the increase of science
among them and us—and generally to grant unto all HUMANkind such a
degree of temporal prosperity as the cosmos alone knows to be best.”
It’s worth remembering that the Amerindians did not begin by “living lightly on the Earth.”
When they arrived in the Americas, there were horses, mammoths, and many other animals that later became extinct. Some say this was climate change killed them off – just like the moas in NZ, the large marsupials in Australia, and so on. It’s interesting how whenever humans show up in a place, climate change occurs and kills off all the large herbivorous animals. “Yum! What? It was the weather!”
The Anasazi, or “pueblo peoples”, built large cities in what is now the US Southwest, and gradually removed all the trees from their landscape, until the deforestation turned the place into a desert. The Mayas similarly starved themselves and their civilisation collapsed in human sacrifice and cannibalism.
So the Amerindians like the Maori and the Australian aboriginals, learned to live lightly on the Earth, but only after they had exhausted all other options and had no choice.
This is not to insult the “first peoples” of the world, but simply to say that they like everyone are human, and made mistakes which in some cases destroyed their civilisations, and in all cases caused them great suffering. The best thing we can do is not to idealise them, but to know their history and learn from it, know their mistakes and learn from them – as they did.
Our Western civilisation is not the first one to think the Earth is infinite, and make few plans for the future.
You are not alone with this struggle. I haven’t yet become an activist for this, but I am behind the Adbusters action this past decade. Friday is Buy Nothing Day!
I am heading toward a buy nothing year, so I am psyched for today. I suspect it will take us all quite awhile to turn this all around. Habits.
Great comments!
Thanks Danny for this more complete version of the George Washington’s proclamation.
Thanks Kyle, for a very inspiring history lesson. I want to believe that we will learn from our mistakes, in time for us to correct our current course. A big difference though, there are a lot more of us making mistakes, and our impact, as we all know is just on an unprecedented scale.
Kate, I am joining you in a buying less – not nothing – year. I am a big advocate of moderation, and I worry about crash diets of all sorts, including for all around consumption.
Your heart is vulnerable here my dear – wonderful post. Let’s be reminded that we might want to be kind to those who don’t know or who are learning and discovering – the masses needed a movie to open their eyes – even though so many then chose to not believe, they will probably need a disastor to make it real – the earth might have to bonk them on the head. However we as knowing as we are and are becoming – we also know that the doing is much harder than we ever thought. Gently lead by example and love those around you for where they may journey next – we all somehow will find our way. Re: the home front …hope the hard lately gets better my kindred friend
Mother Earth aka Karen Hanrahan
http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com
Thanks Karen, for all your kindness.
I agree with you, nature’s cries are not loud enough yet. Until then, the majority of us will continue to behave as if there is no tomorrow. My trip to the mall yesterday – Black Friday – was quite enlightening in that respect. . .
You’re very welcome
one of our local malls encouraged folks to come shopping in their pajamas, literally – prizes if you were still in bed clothes – I am all for PJ’s in the privacy of my home, but we don’t share them with the masses – then I thought of the person who might not wear the flannels to bed and thought ewwwww that’s just too much information for the mall
by the by you are mentioned in today’s post – haven’t gotten the courtesy emails out yet – be sure to read lill’s post – it’s just wonderfully funny
Did you have a nice gobble gobble ? I don’t do the cooking for once – so from that perspective it was deliciously relaxing for me
my girlfriend and her family are like my own and the kids finally met – long overdue
I am so totally procrastinating on my real ” to-do’s”
Mother Earth aka Karen Hanrahan
http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com