Talk about a hard year to celebrate Thanksgiving. Especially since we can’t (safely) get together with our friends and extended families for the annual of rituals of watching the Lions lose a football game, stuffing ourselves with overflowing plates of turkey, cranberry, and all the carbohydrates known to man. We tend to think of Thanksgiving as a holiday when we get to reconnect with family and friends and gird ourselves for the commercial sprint to Christmas.
Yet now it’s 2020, in a pandemic. In fact, it’s hard to think about much to feel grateful for in this year of public health disasters, hurricanes down south, firestorms out west, and divisive and dysfunctional politics all across the country. But we here at Pub Theology are up to the challenge!
In years past we’ve sometimes embraced the challenge of figuring out what we’re grateful for, and in other years we’ve avoided it like a cliche-ridden plague. It seems like a particularly trying time to sit back, take a minute, and take stock of the good things that have happened in our lives, the lives of those important to us, and in the world around us.
A couple of weeks ago, The New York Times asked its readers to share what they’re thankful for in what seems to be the most difficult year in many of our lifetimes. Here’s how they pitched the request:
This year, expressing gratitude seems more essential than ever. It’s been difficult lately not to focus on what we’re missing, the people we’re not seeing, the places we’re not going and the things we’re not doing. Articulating what we’re thankful for is a radical act in the midst of a hard time. Turning our attention to the things we do have rather than what we don’t is a tough task, but a crucial one.
So we’re going to try to embrace the search for gratitude in our virtual conversation this week. Also, we’re going to take a few minutes at the beginning of our time together to touch base on our plan to provide a community meal for some of our neighbors in the Oxford area. That will take the place of our usual conversation on Tuesday, Dec. 1.
Join us for the discussion beginning at 7 pm tomorrow evening, Tuesday, Nov. 24. Read on down for instructions on how to participate in the conversation.
St. Mary’s In-The-Hills is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Pub Theology
Time: Nov 24, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/94184592459Meeting ID: 941 8459 2459
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