Like my own father, Mark Twain had a late November birthday that occasionally coincided with Thanksgiving Day. 1905 was a year that his birthday and the holiday fell on the same day, and Mr. Clemens seized his 70th birthday as an opportunity to stretch our spiritual imaginations through humor, when our guard is down. He wrote:
"Every year every person in America concentrates all his thought upon one thing, the cataloguing of his reasons for being thankful to the Deity for the blessings conferred upon him and upon the human race during the expiring twelve months. This is well and as it should be; but it is too one-sided. No one ever seems to think of the Deity's side of it; apparently no one concerns himself to inquire how much or how little He has had to be thankful for during the same period; apparently no one has had good feeling enough to wish He might have a Thanksgiving day too. There is nothing right about this. Do you suppose everything has gone to His satisfaction during the year?"
Things have changed a bit since 1905. I'm not so sure that most persons, let alone "every person in America," will be concentrating his or her thoughts upon "the cataloguing of his reasons for being thankful." Were God to answer our gentle inquiries as to what would make Him thankful, I would venture that our gratitude would be high on His list. So among the preparations and enjoyment of turkey and cranberries, let's do go about cataloguing our many reasons to be thankful.
Happy Birthday, Dad!
Hat tip to Mariellen.
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