Thanks -- but No Thanks

Some Personal Reflections on Thanksgiving Day 2020

"Oh, Great Spirit whose voice I hear in the winds, 
and whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me, I am small and weak,  
I need your strength and wisdom." 
 -- from a prayer

by Lakota Chief Yellow Lark, 1887
(Entire Prayer)

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, 
it was loaned to you by your children. 
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, 
we borrow it from our Children." 

-- Ancient Native American Proverb

The three day feast that brought together 90 Wampanoags and the 50 surviving Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation in 1621 has become part of our nation's mythology.

Unfortunately, this idyllic tale doesn't portray the stark reality of the European colonization of the Americas.

A holocaust occurred as "our forefathers" descended on this continent. They brought with them white supremacy,  a harshly judgmental Christianity, the European notion of private property, and an emergent capitalism.  (The pilgrims received a land patent from the London Virginia Company and financing from Company of Adventurers. The investors who formed these corporations sought to profit by colonizing lands overseas. )

Although the set of democratic ideals set forth in the Preamble to the US Constitution reflect humanity's quest for a just society, the settler colonists also brought forth on this continent disease, death, domination, and the destruction of the indigenous Way of Life.  Rather than embrace the wisdom of these cultures, with a spirituality that seemed to better understand and honor humanity's relationship to Mother Earth, to the Great Spirit, and to the Circle of All Life, the settler colonists that invaded Massachusetts branded them heathens,  massacred countless human beings, assimilated a few, and drove the others from their homelands.

The worldview of the Indigenous People embraced Connection and Reverence.  Our forefathers brought with them, instead, the Unbridled Greed buried in the belly of Capitalism, and a myopic form of doctrinal Christianity that produces a profound sense of separation from one another, from the natural world, and from our spiritual connection to all that is.  

Through force of arms, including germ warfare and the power of "law," the bad guys won.  Unfortunately for Mother Earth and her myriad beings, they still hold tremendous power today.

Yet, it doesn't have to be that way forever.

It is true that history shows us that those with more guns and less morals have often taken power.  Yet, the opposite is also true.  

In my own lifetime, Mahatma Gandhi, armed with nothing but a spinning wheel, the force of Great Loving Soul, and the Power of the People, sent the mighty British Empire packing.  Martin Luther King and legions of non-violent activists toppled the framework of legal racial segregation that existed here in the "land of the free." Non-violent revolutions toppled the communist governments of eastern Europe. 

So....? 
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Thanks -- but, no thanks.

The Sitting Bull you don't read about in your history books

I won't celebrate Thanksgiving as most folks will tomorrow.  

It's true that I feel a deep gratitude  for family and friends, and for the great material richness that I experience even as poor pensioner living well below the poverty line.  

It's true that I feel a deep gratitude for being alive at age 74, an old hippie who'd been zapped by the One Love during that collective kensho of the Hippie Spiritual Pentacost of the 60's.  

I'll take the time to feel and express that in my morning meditations.  In this COVID pandemic era, I will be thankful for the opportunity to share a somewhat traditional American thanksgiving meal with my significant other, touch base via the web with my kids and grandkids.

 Yet, a major focus of the day will be the on-line presence of the 51st  National Day of Mourning organized by the United American Indians of New England.  

In my morning meditation.  I will practice Tonglen meditation, consciously taking time to mourn the horror and tragedy that ensued in the wake of the European invasion.  I will mourn  the suffering of countless sentient beings whose lives have, and continue to be, stunted or destroyed through the lack of human decency that characterizes  Rapacious Capitalism, White Supremacist Racism, and Clueless Christendom (Which is not to be confused with a Christianity that emerges from actually following Jesus's teachings of Love and Service).  I will take time to connect with my heart's vision and pray for our collective healing.

If there is a thanksgiving to celebrate it will emerge within my deep gratitude for the courage and the resilience and the leadership of the First Peoples of this continent.  I will open my heart to embrace the One Love that embraces each each of us.  Then I will take heart, recite the Bodhisattva Vows,  -- and roll up my sleeves.  There is a lot of work to be done.

For information on this year's National Day of Mourning