Thanksgiving: More than a turkey dinner

By tradition and history, the first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth, Mass., in 1621. It was declared a national holiday by one of my boyhood heroes, President Abraham Lincoln, in 1863 in the midst of a national tragedy, the Civil War.

This national autumn harvest feast made the American turkey really nervous! Norman Rockwell captured the holiday well in his illustrations to the Saturday Evening Post. It is one of the first truly American holidays.

But what does it mean for you and me? For many in this age of digital gimmicks and gizmos, it is just another reason to, well, pig out. It has become a national obsession with large quantities of food. But that is only the window dressing. The real reasons behind this holiday go much deeper and can have life-changing effects.

It is about life and about being truly thankful just for being alive. It’s about being thankful for the richness of family and friends. Thanksgiving is far more than a turkey dinner. It can be a lonely one, too. As a soldier, I spent more than few Thanksgivings away from home and family. I spent them with my fellow GIs, aking the most of it with them and their families during peacetime in places like Alabama, Texas and Germany and even in the middle of the war in Iraq. The chow hall always went overboard making sure we had all the fixings for a huge spread.

My life as a soldier taught me a great deal about what it means to be thankful — indeed, grateful — for so much. Such as routine accouterments as a real working toilet, a hot shower with real soap, a hot meal, clean, dry socks in the winter, a fresh, clean uniform, a rickety cot instead of sleeping bag, a real roof over your head, a letter from loved ones at home, a day free of incoming rounds — thankful for just being able to breathe, for just being alive another day and very, very thankful for surviving a war.

Thanksgiving is a time for friends and family to gather, recall old memories and form new ones. I remember as a kid waking up to watch the parades on TV and picking the college football teams to root for later that day. I remember helping my mother as she began to make the turkey and all the fixings that went along with it. My sisters and I would give the turkey a fond pat for good luck as it was put in the oven.

Then there was getting dressed up for the dinner itself, sitting down in our Sunday best eager to feast on the likes of homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce and, of course, lots of turkey and gravy. A round of long-distance phone calls to family spread out from New England to the West Coast. The holiday is a good reason to call and catch up on the lives of our relatives. Even today that holds true. From Alaska to California, all the way back to Massachusetts where my family sprang from, we have made it a family tradition to call and hear the voices of family so far away and tell them they are loved and missed greatly.

My own children are grown now and living good and well meaning lives in Oregon. They are another blessing for which I am humbly grateful. One doesn’t have to be GI to feel that, just human. I humbly confess I have been to far too few Thanksgivings with them over the years. My job as a soldier prevented many and now where I live is another barrier. But the love is still there, even across the thousands of miles that separate us. To me, that is a richness no amount of money can bring.

I have not gone into the religious aspects of Thanksgiving. While I do have a faith in the Creator, I will leave that to the individual. It is far more than a religious holiday, more than just a given religion’s take on it. It doesn’t matter in my mind or opinion that one needs to have a religion or faith in the Creator to take part in Thanksgiving.

It is about being with those who matter most — family and friends. It is about being thankful for just being alive and free, thankful for bring able to laugh and share in the bounties that life itself brings to us all. I can say for myself that I am greatly thankful to the Creator for granting the gift of life, for waking up each day a living, breathing human being. Even though I bear the scars of a war and have made more than a few mistakes in life and may be poor as a church mouse, I feel I am the richest man on Earth because of my family and close friends. I may not be perfect, but at least I am alive to know the difference.

So this Thanksgiving as the Winter Queen tries her best to freeze us or blow us down with her minions of deep, cold and wintery bluster, I will watch the parade on TV. I’ll root for the football teams at my loudest, help my sister and mother with the turkey and all the rest that go with it, dodge the cats as they scramble around the living room floor giving us all a laugh at the mayhem they spread and feed the critters that live outside. Then, I’ll sit down and eat a well placed spread on the table, enjoying it all — especially the homemade stuffing, my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal.

After that, I’ll call up all my family and friends that I have shared life with. Most of all, I’ll thank God I am alive to do it all again for another year. To me, this is a Thanksgiving well spent. I hope all out there are able to do the same in their own fashion.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.