Thankfulness brings alertness

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"Giving thanks for abundance
is sweeter than the abundance itself:
Should one who is absorbed with
the Generous One
be distracted by the gift?
Thankfulness is the soul of beneficence;
abundance is but the husk,
for thankfulness brings you to the place where the Beloved lives.
Abundance yields heedlessness;
thankfulness brings alertness:
hunt for bounty with the net of gratitude." - Jalalud'din Rumi

MATHNAWI III, 2895-2897
Translated by Kabir Helminski and Camille Helminski

A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.

While the myth of multicultural cooperation that informed my first understanding of the Thanksgiving holiday is dangerously false, a shared spirit of gratitude is transcendently powerful.

Debbie and I didn't celebrate Thanksgiving in the conventional way yesterday. On Sunday night of this week Beatrice Stanford, her 105-year-old half sister, died peacefully. Her last words were to her daughter: "I'm leaving. Will you be OK?". So we jettisoned our plans for a gathering at our house and instead spent Wednesday with family and friends in New York celebrating an amazing and beautiful life.

It was a uniquely wonderful sharing of thanks and appreciation. I hope that you are finding the joy of gratitude too, in whatever form the opportunity presents itself.

Happy Friday.

Personal Development
Practicing gratitude means embracing the stuff that we regret, that embarrasses us, that makes us feel ashamed, too.

Zen master Taizan Maezumi Roshi wrote: “Please encourage yourself so that your practice is fully to appreciate this transient, frenzied life as the whole self-contained, self-fulfilled life.” Photo via ZCLA Archive

Dale S. Wright is a Professor of Religious Studies. He writes that "When regrets about my failures and misfortunes begin to overwhelm me and my life feels disappointing, I have learned to seek guidance from two of my spiritual heroes, the Zen master Taizan Maezumi Roshi and the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche." He says that both challenge him to appreciate "the whole mess—pleasant and painful—and to love what can’t be changed, no matter how debilitating it has been. They direct me to love it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly, because there it is: reality, staring me in the face."

This is an important article, especially during this holiday of gratitude. It's for subscribers only, but Tricycle Magazine will give it to you if you subscribe to a free newsletter, and their letters are very welcome in my inbox.

Article: Why Should I Appreciate Life?

Cultural Awareness
Why some modern Native people hold a Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving

That the Mayflower reached Cape Cod in November 1620 and found a wilderness lightly populated by primitive heathens is, of course, a myth. Instead they encountered a full blown civilization, one with roads connecting multifamily summer villages, stored crops and fallow fields.

The Thanksgiving story, a fable of the same native peoples generously helping the Pilgrims through their first winter by teaching them to plant corn, then celebrating their success with a feast of venison and game, is as mythical.

According to historian, David Silverman, European mariners called "explorers" preceded the Pilgrims as slavers who raided the Wampanoag coast for years prior to 1620. Then the Pilgrims introduced themselves to the Wampanoags by desecrating graves and robbing underground storage bins. In the fall of 1621 native leaders extended their hand not out of innate friendliness, but because they needed allies against their Narragansett rivals after the Wampanoags suffered a devastating epidemic introduced by the Europeans.

Perhaps telling the real history of Thanksgiving should be a new holiday tradition.

Book: This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving

Related Article: The Invention of Thanksgiving

The first national day of Thanksgiving was declared by Abraham Lincoln in 1850 in order to unify a country polarized by the civil war.

"In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, he wrote, Americans had maintained their laws and their institutions and had kept foreign countries from meddling with their nation. They had paid for the war as they went, refusing to permit the destruction to cripple the economy. Instead, as they funded the war, they had also advanced farming, industry, mining, and shipping. Immigrants had poured into the country to replace men lost on the battlefield, and the economy was booming. And Lincoln had recently promised that the government would end slavery once and for all. The country, he predicted, 'with a large increase of freedom,' would survive, stronger and more prosperous than ever. The president invited Americans 'in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands' to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving." - Heather Cox Richardson

Article: Thanksgiving is the Quintessential American holiday…But Not for the Reasons We Generally Remember.

Personal Development
To take care of yourself, take care of others.

"Kindness to yourself is kindness to others. As your own well-being increases, you’re more able and likely to be patient, supportive, forgiving, and loving. To take care of them, you’ve got to take care of yourself."

Some welcome coaching from writer and meditation teacher Rick Hanson, PhD: "If you get a sense of other people and find compassion for them, you’ll feel better yourself. In a relationship, one of the best ways to get your own needs met is to take maximum reasonable responsibility (these words are carefully chosen) for meeting the needs of the other person. Besides being benevolent – which feels good in its own right – it’s your best odds strategy for getting treated better by others. This approach is the opposite of being a doormat; it puts you in a stronger position."

Article: Kindness to You is Kindness to Me; Kindness to Me is Kindness to You

Civics, Public Policy
The role of hope in fixing seemingly intractable problems

Carol Graham is an economist at Princeton, one of the "few crazy people" (her words) who 20 years ago first started to consider the role that happiness and feelings play in government policy.

She's got a new book about her findings, empirical evidence that demonstrates that hope can improve people’s life outcomes and that despair can destroy them.

Most importantly she highlights the kinds of things that can help restore hope. She starts by holding up the critical role that communities play in the process. "It's not just an individual problem," she says, "Communities are increasingly getting involved and helping provide peer support for mental health treatment and interventions."

She emphasizes the critical importance of mentors, particularly for the young, because "they need to acquire socio-emotional cognitive skills that are not taught in public high schools. Without these skills they might be the next generation in despair."

Book: The Power of Hope: How the Science of Well-Being Can Save Us from Despair

Video: Director of Economic Studies Carol Graham on Her New Book, The Power of Hope

Related Article: A Surprisingly Radical Proposal: Make People Happier — Not Just Wealthier and Healthier

Cultural Celebration
In 1982 six teachers were frustrated with how Mexican culture was taught in Chicago public schools. So they started a museum of Mexican art.

Martha Gabriela Driessen, Mayra y su vestido (Mayra and her Dress), Guanajuato, México, 2021. The photograph is hung until December 10 in the show Día de Muertos, Living Presence, at the National Museum of Mexican Art. Image courtesy of the artist.

Last week the world learned that Carlos Tortolero, founder of the National Museum of Mexican Art, is retiring. Neil Steinberg observed that buried in the many accolades were three disarmingly simple words. As he said “'opened in 1987,' just don’t do justice to the reality."

"Wander back in time, not to 1987, but to September 1982. Tortolero was disgusted with a Chicago Public Schools system that would treat Spanish-speaking students as if they were learning-disabled. Where Mexican culture was pretty much limited to the bad guys at the Alamo. Inclusivity is such a mantra today, we forget the headlock that white culture had on education not so long ago, and what did show up in classrooms about Mexican history echoed the joke about food at a Catskills resort: lousy, and in such small portions.

“'Beyond bad,' Tortolero said. 'The misinformation was unbelievable. No one knew about Mexican culture. The students, young people, don’t know the impact of Mexico. These kids were not getting any of their history, all the great things. They knew nothing about it.'

"So he met with five other CPS staffers on Sept. 15, 1982, at Benito Juarez High School. That date was picked deliberately: the evening before Mexican Independence Day. 'El Grito' the anniversary of Father Miguel Hidalgo ringing his church bell and calling for the Spanish oppressors to be driven out. 'The Cry of Dolores' — a perfect day to start a revolution.

“'Time for us to preserve our culture,' said Tortolero. 'To share our culture too.'” - Neil Steinberg

Article: The Teachers Who Started a Museum

Communication, Guerrilla Marketing
How to open doors and build bridges

What a simple idea.

Online store: The Human Library

Related Article: Stereotypes Might Not be as Powerful as Psychologists Assumed

Nature, Climate
The USDA is measuring exactly how much warmer your winters are.

As a longtime gardener, I rely on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map to help me determine which perennial plants will thrive where I live in Western Massachusetts. Ever since I planted my first garden in 1973 we have been in USDA zone 5b, meaning that the average annual extreme minimum temperature we experienced was -10 to -5 (F).

The USDA just updated their map and guess what? We're now in Zone 6a, meaning that our minimum temperature has risen a full 5 degrees. Boston gardeners, who are now in zone 7a (!), report that fig trees are surviving without extensive protection, and there have been sightings of camellias and southern magnolia trees making it through the past few winters without frost damage.

Interactive Map: 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Article: 'It feels like I'm not crazy.' Gardeners Aren't Surprised as USDA Updates Key Map

One-liners

Article: Black churches take control of community food security

Article: Why having more sex can save your life.

Article: ‘I’m loud, I know how to organize’: How women became the backbone of the Writers Guild strike captain network

Article: The green skills gap is widening.

Article: Want to feel better? Science says to care for your dog.

Article: Brooklyn’s new affordable housing development is built on top of a public library.

Playlist

Video: Anna Kova - Try A Little Tenderness (Otis Redding) Live Performance

You know how I love a great cover song. Make it a great cover of a great Otis Redding song and I feel really, really good.

Anna Kova is a French hip-hop/soul singer who is not afraid to cross a lot of boundaries. Lucky for us she's young and just getting started.

Weekly Mixtape
How can there be a "soul revival" if soul never went away?

Playlist: Soul Revival?

Image of the Week

How Piet Mondrian would plate Thanksgiving dinner.

Photo essay: Thanksgiving Special: How 10 Famous Artists Would Plate Thanksgiving Dinner

What's Love & Work?
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