Thanksgiving

It’s Saturday morning and most of the students and many of the faculty have left for a well-deserved break. The women’s hockey team and men’s varsity basketball and hockey teams are still around, and all three are off to great starts to their seasons. After a two point loss in their first game, the basketball team has won their next four games decisively. Cumulatively through their first five games, they have outscored their opponents 413-301. The women and men’s hockey teams have both jumped out to quick starts as well and have looked strong on the ice. The women overcame St. George’s on Wednesday in a scrimmage and then beat a Canadian team yesterday. The men scored a 5-3 win over Buckingham, Brown and Nichols this morning in the first game of their jamboree and will face Bridgton this afternoon. The women were there to cheer for that game and are now on busses bound for Exeter for three games this afternoon.

But otherwise, the campus is getting quiet quickly, allowing me to catch up on some work and some thinking. As I sit here looking out across the cold, sunny golf course towards Mt. Monadnock, I am reminded that one of my favorite parts of each day is Morning Meeting. It is important how the school comes together, sits in advisee groups and shares a few moments together. There are often serious announcements as well as very fun pronouncements. We share laughs with each other, cheer victories academic, athletic and otherwise and sometimes poke fun at one another. And most days we find time to have a very large group discussion of sorts of world events with several different people regularly chiming in. It’s great to be able to talk about current events with so many perspectives from so many countries and backgrounds represented in one room.

This past Thursday was our last meeting before break, and I changed things up a bit to take time to talk a little about Thanksgiving and all that we have to be thankful for, especially in light of the world events and the current economic upheaval. It was still a participatory discussion but with more of a framework provided by me. I thought I would share a few of my notes, with the hope that readers will recognize that there was input from others in the course of this discussion.

We first talked about the roots of Thanksgiving, with most believing that the American holiday is traced back to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. Many seemed surprised 1)at the notion that post-harvest celebrations have been going on for thousands of years, 2)that many other countries and groups have similar celebrations and 3)that historians increasingly think that the first Thanksgiving in this country was celebrated in the mid 16th century near what is now St. Augustine, FL by a group of Spanish explorers. History does get rewritten!

I then wanted to try to find a context to put all that we have to be thankful for in. We discussed the total world population, estimated to be this month at 6.75 billion. We then talked about how the people gathered in this room represent some of the 1% most fortunate people in the world – the 1% wealthiest, healthiest, best educated, best fed people in the world.

We then contrasted that to the approximate number of people in the room that morning (about 300) and discussed the fact that for each of us, there were about 20,000,000 who are far less fortunate than us. To put that 20,000,000 in context, I suggested that each person think of their 20,000,000 people as their own country in which we are among the most fortunate people in. If any of us were really a country, it would put us right around the 50th largest country in the world, in the top quartile in terms of population and nestled right in there with Syria and Mozambique. It’s a different way of thinking about things but helped me and at least a couple of others reflect on just how fortunate we are.

I suggested to the group that we each take a moment to think about what our own ‘country’ would look like, to think about the following…

Many wake up wondering when and where their next meal will come from.
Millions wake up worried that their home or village will be attacked in the next 24 hours or that a family member will be harassed.
Millions wake up worried that they will lose a family member to disease or malnutrition in the next day.
Millions of kids in your country won’t get to go to school or learn to read or write.

And then I closed along the following lines…

“We in this room are among the most fortunate in the world and have so much to celebrate Thanksgiving for. I think that we often forget just how fortunate we are as we worry about tests, grades and the SAT’s, whether we have a cold or an infection or a concussion or whether we will have cell phone coverage or just how bad the economy is.

“We don’t worry about where our next meal will come from…
We have the opportunity to take advantage of a fabulous education…
We don’t worry about who will care for us…
We can have confidence that rebels aren’t going to come sneaking up Hall Road tonight and that there will be a peaceful transition to the new president’s government in the coming months…
We can clothe ourselves, and our families are safe…
We are part of a very caring community…

“So, as you enjoy your break, I hope that you will take a few minutes to reflect on all that we do have. If you have any trouble doing that, think about the 20,000,000 people in your own make believe country that you are more fortunate than.”

“While I can also be guilty of wanting, of complaining, I quickly get over it when I think about all that I do have, my family, my health, much happiness and the Winchendon community. I have much to be thankful for.

“And to all of you, I say a very big thanks for an incredible fall. Thank you for the fun that we have had. Thanks for welcoming me to your community. Thanks for all that you do each day to help each other and to make Winchendon such a special place. Thank you.”

Have a great Thanksgiving.