I love Thanksgiving as a holiday. It is actually my favorite celebration within the season, and for a number of reasons. There are no complications--no expectations to manage, no gifts to buy, no tree to manhandle--just family and food and football. And the food...oh the glorious food! Is there anything better than the stuffing from a turkey, or homemade cranberry sauce, or pumpkin pie? Is there anything better than a week of Thanksgiving leftovers?
I suspect domesticated turkeys lack my enthusiasm for this holiday. This is their great day of mourning, when their countless masses are consumed without remorse. In reality, they probably pay no mind at all, because there is just about nothing dimmer in the universe than the domestic turkey. Sorry Mr. President, but at my house there will be no pardon issued. That bird has a date with destiny.
All jokes aside, I so enjoy Thanksgiving because of all that it represents: warm memories of times spent with those most dear and hours freely given in the service of others. It is the great calling home, the quiet before the storm. As a historian, I am drawn to times past, and I wonder as to the meaning of this day or days like it in the lives of real people through the ages. What must it have been like for those first peoples celebrating the harvest, with no assurance they would survive the winter, or that the following year's yield would bring the same? What of Lincoln, doing everything he could to hold a nation together and end a national scourge? What of those soldiers in trenches and foxholes, eating some unnamed substance from a tin can in the cold, longing for the safety and comfort of home? What of the inexhaustible poor, who have no voice in their history, struggling to feed their children in the face of abundance?
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, humbled by my good fortune and the joy of family, friends, and respected colleagues, I give thanks:
To the faculty, staff, administration, and Board of Directors of the Baldwin School, who have endured so many changes on my watch and risen to every challenge, I thank you.
To our parents, who have so generously supported our initiatives, and given as they could, thank you.
To the children of Baldwin School, who make education the greatest job in the world; for every smile, every hug, every crazy conversation, every laugh, I thank you.
To my wife and best friend, my sons, my family, for all of your support and love, thank you.
Special thanks to everyone who attended Night@Mardi Gras--we raised nearly $75,000 for the Innovation Center!
Whether home is near or far, wherever you may be in the coming week, I wish you all a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving. From my family to yours, may your life be full of love and hope. Safe travels.
See you around campus.