A Letter on Giving Thanks from WIN's Executive Director
"Is your glass half empty or half full?" asked the mole.
"I think I’m grateful to have a glass," said the boy.
- From The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
Thanksgiving is a more complicated holiday than we grew up having been taught in school. Far from a sunny story of peaceful feasting and cross-cultural encounters, Thanksgiving has a fraught history and rarely gives credence to its painful implications for the Native American population.
Now, exactly four hundred years later, as we celebrate what has turned into a national day of mindfulness, a day of Gratitude, as we come together in small groups and large to express our appreciation for family, friends, freedom, health, etc, we must acknowledge that rarely is the cup either half empty or half full. In actuality, it is both.
Perhaps the first Thanksgiving, which was held sometime between September and November of 1621 in Plymouth Massachusetts, was a collaborative moment between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, in which an indigenous man named Squanto famously taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn and fish in his tribal Wampanoag land. But it must be contextualized within a broader landscape of his tribe dying from smallpox, and subsequent massacres of other Native American tribes. It raises questions about how we can hold and uphold multiple truths, multiple narratives in tandem. Namely, is it possible to acknowledge the painful truth of the past, commemorate and mourn its victims, and simultaneously celebrate the positive values of the present day that it has come to be?
A friend recently gifted me a book, "The Boy, the Mole, The Fox, and the Horse," by Charlie Mackesy which has been a NYTimes Bestseller throughout the pandemic, and understandably so. The book combines beautiful, simplistic, and raw illustrations, with inspirational and heartwarming quotes and wisdom, dropped so humbly, and so unassumingly, that I imagine they cannot but help burrow themselves into even the most hardened or cynical of hearts. It is a book whose emotionally grounded optimism we need more of in this world, far from saccharine cheer or empty positivity, but deeply felt, authentically held hopefulness... a hopefulness that sees the darkness, that acknowledges the painful shadows, but also chooses to believe in the light.
As many of us go off to cocoon with our families and friends, feast upon turkey and pumpkin pie, and count and recount our blessings, we might not agree upon whether the glass is half empty or half full. But perhaps we can at least agree to be grateful to have the glass.
Cheers to you, our WIN community. We certainly are grateful to raise our glass with you!
Warmly,
Daniella Kahane
Executive Director + CEO, WIN
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