QUARANTINE BLOG # 241

November 26, 2020

On Thanksgiving Day, here is a two-Kleenex feel good moment.  The clip is 6 years old, but that doesn’t lessen the impact.  Enjoy “Baseball Surprise”.

👉  The first official annual Thanksgiving in Canada was celebrated on November 6, 1879, though Indigenous peoples in Canada have a history of celebrating the fall harvest that predates the arrival of European settlers.  Sir Martin Frobisher  and his crew, while searching for the Northwest Passage, are credited as the first Europeans to celebrate a Thanksgiving ceremony in North America, in 1578.  They were followed by the inhabitants of New France under Samuel de Champlain in 1606.  The celebration featuring the uniquely North American turkey, squash and pumpkin was introduced to Nova Scotia in the 1750s and became common across Canada by the 1870s.  On January 31, 1957 Canada’s Parliament proclaimed the observance of the second Monday in October as “a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.”  

👉  When I was a teenager, I remember our pastor at Loch Lynn Evangelical United Brethren Church, Rev. Oscar Hull, saying, “I know I see a Communist under every bush, and I try hard to keep from turning leaves over.”

Well, Brother Oscar, in 2020, it’s a racist under every bush that we see.

This time it’s Charles Schulz’s A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving that has caused the modern day Paul Reveres (sorry Paul) to rise up and shout, “The racists are coming!  The racists are coming!”

Franklin Armstrong, the only Black character, is sitting by himself on one side of a Thanksgiving table, while the other kids sit together on the other side, which raises the of cry “racism.”

Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences and professor of sociology and African American studies at UCLA, says, “Having Franklin on this long side by himself, you could interpret it that no one wanted to sit next to him.”

Franklin first appeared in the Peanuts comic strip on July 31, 1968. A retired teacher named Harriet Glickman asked Schulz to add a Black character to the strip that year. Schulz said he and other cartoonists were afraid it would look like they were patronizing their Black friends.  One Black leader, Kenneth Kelly, suggested that a Black character be introduced “in a casual day-to-day scene” – to suggest racial friendship.

Franklin joined the Peanuts comic strip a few months later. But it wasn’t without a fight: When the cartoon’s publisher, United Feature Syndicate, questioned adding a Black character, Schulz responded, “Either you run it the way I drew it, or I quit.”

Commenting on the current storm, Luis Vazquez said, “Franklin has the whole side of the table to himself on a lounge chair, while the rest of the crew are all cramped together on some butt-hard wooden chairs.  My boy got the W not the L.”

Sadiah Ani said, “The king usually sits alone from servants.  No more talk.”

👉  THOUGHTS ON THANKSGIVING

A Sunday school teacher asked the class what they were thankful for. One little boy said, “I’m thankful I wear glasses.” This struck the teacher as odd because most boys didn’t care for wearing glasses so she asked, “Now why is that?” The boy answered, “Because it keeps the older boys from fighting with me and it keeps the girls from kissing me.” What a great attitude to have. To see all things as a benefit instead of a curse, especially when so many blessings are forgotten or taken for granted.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the six million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, some in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace...you are among the top 8% of the world’s most wealthy citizens.

Thankful people don’t have to have everything going their way to rejoice. Thankful people can remember how God has provided and they even see his comforting hand in their day of trouble.

Paul wrote his letter to the church at Philippi while he was in jail. He had been beaten, abandoned by his friends, lost contact with his churches, and in the midst of those circumstances he penned the Epistle of Joy. He writes to “rejoice in the Lord” and to be “thankful.” Thankful people refuse to allow today’s troubles to blind them to yesterday’s blessings. Come ye thankful people come.

“Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” is a hymn traditionally sung at this season.  Here is a version from Brookwood Church.  It transitions into “Let Everything That Hath Breath.”  I wish the clip had gone longer to get the entire praise chorus.  Enjoy.

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