Thankful to ….
Posted by Ron Coleman on November 21, 2007
Originally published at Dean’s World, Thanksgiving 2006:
A million essays and blog posts will explore the topic of “being thankful” in the next 24 hours.
I’d say, based on a perusal of a Google search I just ran seeking a link to add to this post on my blog, that at least 80% of them talk about “being thankful” with no reference whatsoever to Whom (or even whom) one should be thankful.
It is an utter logical dead end. You cannot, by definition, have “thanks” without an object of thanks. It is meaningless.
thank
TRANSITIVE VERB:
thanked , thank·ing , thanks1. To express gratitude to; give thanks to: He thanked her for the gift.
2. To hold responsible; credit: We can thank the parade for this traffic jam.
You can’t have free-floating thanks. You can thank her for the gift, you can thank the parade for the traffic. You can’t just thank, however.
You can eat turkey. You can watch football. You get together with family and you can call it Thanksgiving. But not thanksgiving.
Whom are you thanking this Thanksgiving?
punning pundit said
*ahem *
“To whom are you giving thanks”.
But only if you absolutely must use that gods-awful anachronism.
To answer your question more directly, I thank whoever it is most appropriate: My country, my family, my friends, the universe, a specific deity who may have had a hand in things…
Ron Coleman said
I don’t know what anachronism you mean, and for someone who recklessly neologizes like you, Roland (“gods-awful”) — that takes the turkey!
punning pundit said
To a polytheist like myself “gods awful” makes perfect sense…
Jack said
I’m just thankful you didn’t start with a Hasid.
Otherwise: http://themissal.blogspot.com/2007/11/thankfulness-repentance-and.html
craig mclaughlin said
It’s not a settled question for some of us, Ron.
But it seems to me that these days, (maybe all days) being able to get family together is worthwhile. People get old, they die, people move, they lose touch.
I don’t give a damn if they’re giving thanks to the Dallas Cowboys.