Save Thanksgiving from Commercialism--Beth Trissel

"There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American."
~O. Henry 

With a daughter working in retail at a major store, and fellow employees now referring to Thanksgiving as 'Gray Thursday', she and I have pondered what should be--used to be--the focus of America's time-honored holiday. What does Thanksgiving mean to you? I've gathered some fitting quotes and reflections on this historic day.

"O Lord that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness."
~William Shakespeare

"On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence."  ~William Jennings Bryan

"Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way."  ~Native American Saying

"An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day."  ~Irv Kupcinet

"Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse."
~Henry Van Dyke 

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice."
  ~Meister Eckhart


"Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude."  ~E.P. Powell

"Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow."  ~Edward Sandford Martin

"He who thanks but with the lips
Thanks but in part;
The full, the true Thanksgiving
Comes from the heart."
~J.A. Shedd

"Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare.  They are consumed in twelve minutes.  Half-times take twelve minutes.  This is not coincidence."  ~Erma Bombeck

"None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude.  Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy." ~Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

"Ah! on Thanksgiving day....
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before.
What moistens the lips and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?"
~John Greenleaf Whittier

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."  ~Thornton Wilder