Is anybody giving thanks today?

[rug]

If so, to whom or what?

[LARED]

1. God, family, country nt

[Uben]

2. Yes, thank you dear lord.....

...for convicting that no good cheatin Tom Delay and please send him to prison for a looooong time. And, bless the guards and inmates that have to put up with his stench while he is contaminating their space. May all his friends be with him on his holidays in prison and may they all live long and miserable lives incarcerated.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. grateful every day that we are now living

out in the sticks , out of the city.

I am very grateful Mr. d's stay in the hospital was short, he is apparently fully recovered, and we will have the medical bills paid off by April.

grateful for DU, a bright light in a otherwise dumbed down world.

How about you, rug?

[rug]

5. Oh, I'm no more thankful today than any other day. It's a secular holiday.

But I am thankful for sobriety and to my family. I am thankful I am not alone. I am thankful I realize there is a God and that it is not me.

Mostly, I am happy I can be thankful. It is difficult to be miserable and thankful in the same moment.

Happy Thanksgiving dixie!

:hi:

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. I DO understand "an attitude of gratitude".

Jus saying..........:hi:

[elocs]

4. "Anybody" giving thanks thanks today? Yes, odds are that "somebody" will be giving thanks.

It is possible to be thankful without giving thanks to anyone or thing in particular.

I am thankful that I have good health, that at age 58 I can wake up in the morning without anything hurting, but I am not thankful "to" anyone one for that.

[rug]

6. I think you refer to being relieved. Thanks is not an intransitive word.

[elocs]

8. No, I think not. But it is possible to torture the meaning of a word until it begs for mercy.

I am not thankful "to" anyone, but I am thankful and I know exactly what I mean by that.

[rug]

9. I thank you for your comment.

[cleanhippie]

27. Well Done. [phone]

[darkstar3]

7. What does Thanksgiving have to do with religion?

As I recall, this is one national holiday with no religious iconography. It is nearly unique in that it has been a holiday based in history and tradition, not worship of any kind. So I ask again, what does Thanksgiving have to do with religion, or the R/T board?

[rug]

10. It has nothing to do with religion. Giving thanks, otoh, does.

Still, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without your pleasant words.

[darkstar3]

11. Says you.

Also, says the contingent of the religious who wish to co-opt yet another holiday. As another poster showed above, "giving thanks" can have many meanings and targets. Your narrow interpretation of the phrase is not the only valid one.

[rug]

13. If thanks are not communicated, what are they?

[GliderGuider]

26. Do they need to be communicated to anyone but yourself?

If anyone else needs to hear them, they will...

[rug]

30. I think so.

It is an acknowledgement beyond oneself.

[GliderGuider]

31. Why is that necessary?

I'm not being a gadfly here, I really don't understand. I get that some people believe that good things flow in by the auspices of a God who is outside of them. However, I don't get why one would need to direct thanks to that entity, or why God wouldn't hear the thanks no matter how they were directed.

[rug]

32. Because the very nature of thanks is acknowledging another.

If you are able to thank another person, but don't, what are you doing? If you're unable to thank that person, say a deceased parent, the thanks would still be real, although bittersweet because you cannot tell him or her.

An appreciation is not really the same thing as thanks.

Doubtless a God that exists would know your thoughts, spoken or not. But it's you who would have to form the thought.

IMHO.

[GliderGuider]

34. Thank you

Everyone has a slightly different take on the gratitude question, so thanks for clarifying how you see it.

[darkstar3]

37. What makes you think the target of that communication must be God?

[rug]

38. It doesn't have to be. We thank each other all the time.

But let me ask you this. Who do you thank for a blue sky? You certainly can appreciate it and enjoy it. But do you thank anybody or anything?

[darkstar3]

39. Why should I thank anyone or anything for a blue sky?

It seems an asinine question/concept...

[rug]

40. Lol, nobody's making you.

[darkstar3]

41. Of course not, but you asked the question as if it were somehow important,

or as if it somehow made your point about God. I provided the only answer that made sense to me, which was to point out the question was asinine.

[rug]

43. If you do not sense thankfulness for a blue sky, and the notion itself is asinine to you,

then I guess that's all you can do. But I hope you understand that's simply your subjective response, which does not make it either asinine or unimportant.

[darkstar3]

44. And in that vein,

you should realize that while you might give thanks to god for all manner of things, that does not make giving thanks for anything a religious or god-related practice, and it doesn't mean that god exists or should be thanked by others for anything.

[rug]

45. At the risk of repeating myself, you miss the point.

The fact that I give thanks to God and the fact that you don't are both immaterial to the fact that giving thanks is often - not slways - religious, whether it's giving thanks to God directly or to others as fellow children of God.

Why do you find that so hard to accept?

If you can't, you can discuss giving thanks to farmers in the Rural Forum or for blue skies in the Science Forum. But to simply repeat there is no God and that it's asinine to think there is one, let alone thank it, is, minimally, tedious.

[darkstar3]

46. Tedious is an attempt to co-opt yet another holiday for your god,

even in light of the fact that you have no basis for doing so. The fact that many people give thanks to god is immaterial to the fact that the act of thanksgiving itself is not religious, contrary to what you believe and have said upthread.

As far as I'm concerned, Santa Claus and Santa In The Sky can both stop poking their asses into my turkey dinner. Both could stand a lesson in the phrase "it's not all about you."

[rug]

47. Do you say that no act of thanksgiving is religious?

If you do, you ignore all evidence to the contrary, ironically.

We've established you do not believe in God.

We've established that you believe the concept of being thankful for a blue sky is either asinine or you are incapable of feeling thanks for a blue sky.

So, assuming you have some benign reaction to a beautiful day, what do you call that reaction?

(BTW, you've already demonstrated tedium by invoking Santa Claus. Avoid burlesque and don't mention unicorns.)

[darkstar3]

49. Bored now.

Clearly your point is lost, and your OP shown for what it is. 'Night.

[trotsky]

12. I can't give thanks to America's hard-working farmers without it being religious?

That's strange.

[rug]

14. You can. Giving thanks can be religious or nonreligious.

But you cannot say that giving thanks cannot be religious.

[trotsky]

17. Good thing I never did.

Enjoy thanksgiving with your strawman, rug!

[rug]

19. You're not staying for dinner?

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. Well played.

:rofl: :rofl:

[cleanhippie]

28. You contradict youself. You just said it DOES have to do with religion.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=265441&mesg_id=265457

[rug]

29. The day doesn't. It would behoove you to read more closely.

[AlecBGreen]

16. As an aspiring farmer, Im thankful for your thanks :)

Have a happy Thanksgiving Trotsky! :hi:

[AlecBGreen]

15. Thanks dont need to be aimed at God

As a believer I aim my gratitude toward what I perceive to be the source of my blessings, but for those who dont believe in God, I think just contemplating and being grateful all the "good things" in life (health, family, warm food & a dry bed) is sufficient. Further, I believe God hears and is gladdened by those thoughts of gratitude, even if they aren't directed at him. IMHO, 'it will be credited to them as righteousness.'

[DeadEyeDyck]

35. but the word holiday means "holy"

[darkstar3]

36. Tell that to the British

Who use it in lieu of the word vacation. Holiday hasn't meant holy on quite a long time.

[GliderGuider]

18. Almost

I prefer to think of it as "Expressing gratitude for" rather than "Giving thanks to", and I do it every day.

Expressing gratitude is something I do to remind me that the universe is an abundant and nurturing place to live. I don't address my gratitude to anyone/anything but myself.

I am grateful for:

• Being alive at this moment in this incredible, rich, varied, challenging universe;
  
• Having been born to intelligent, progressive, well-educated parents;
  
• Having the opportunity and ability to learn from all my experiences; and
  
• Having the gumption to grab the brass ring when it appeared and finally re-connecting with my soul-mate after 30 years of separation.

That's my daily expression of gratitude, today like every other day.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. "finally re-connecting with my soul-mate after 30 years of separation."

Wow.

I can fully appreciate that has to be a heck of a story.

good on you for gumption!

[GliderGuider]

25. We've been re-united for 8 months now, and I still get shivers every time I see her.

It feels like we are one person living as two personalities. When we knew each other briefly back in the 70s we loved each other but didn't unite - in retrospect it seems that we needed to grow first as individuals. Now after we have each passed through our own Dark Night of the Soul, we have finally come to the point where being together is the next necessary step of the journey.

It's an incredible feeling. Our life philosophies are identical. Our tastes and preferences are identical. We live inside each others' minds to the point where we're taking the telepathy for granted. My deepest gratitude is reserved for the miracle of having found her again before our lives ended. We're both pushing 60, and although we would have preferred to have spent the last 30 years together rather than apart, we are overwhelmed with joy that we are together right now.

And yes, we have plans to write the story...

[AlecBGreen]

42. congratulations!

:bounce: Make the most of it GG :)

[Saturday]

23. I'm thankful for DU where I can talk to people that are usually sane. nt

[onager]

24. Bart Simpson's "Grace" got it exactly right...

Dear God - we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing.

Oh, and I'm giving thanks to the Internetz today - for the complete MST3K collection. So I can have my own personal Turkey Day Marathon!

[ZombieHorde]

33. I thanked my wife for making me a delicious breakfast. nt

[LAGC]

48. For the first time, our extended family didn't say a prayer before digging in.

Granted, we progressed to a more ecumenical ritual of "moment of silence" a couple years back, but my uncle's family has fallen away from the church just like my parents did several years ago, I like to think I played a small role in that group decision. I was the one who proposed the "moment of silence" instead of Christian prayer in the first place to honor my other aunt and uncle who become Buddhists. But this year, even with my Buddhist aunt/uncle not able to make it, we managed to enjoy our meal just fine without the silly ritual.

Thanks be to Richard Dawkins and, of course, the farmers and grocery store workers who provided such a tasty meal!

Hope you had a Happy Turkey Day too, rug.

[rug]

50. Thanks, LA, I did. Glad yours was peaceful.