Today marks the second convergence of Thanksgiving and the first day of Hannukah in quite awhile. The last time Hannukah fell on the last Thursday of the month, the day that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed to be celebrated as Thanksgiving in 1861, was 1888, and the next time won’t be for another 70,000 years, give or take a few centuries. Due to the rarity of the moment, I was intrigued by the alignment.
Because Jews follow their own calendar and Americans follow the Gregorian calendar (or Christian calendar), established by Pope Gregory to keep Easter aligned with the anniversary of the Council of Nicea, there is a bit of a discrepancy as to what day is what. For both of the systems, as with any system man designed to categorize and control the infinite, there are a number of exceptions built into the program to make up for their inability to perfectly align with nature. Amidst their disparate leap years and relatively fixed holidays, every now and then, just as with their belief systems, something overlaps.
For me, although I realize that both of the systems, as with all of the man-made systems we cling to, were designed to achieve some semblance of understanding about the world we inhabit, I appreciate that there are built in moments which allow us to celebrate life. I only wish that we could one day transcend our calendars and other manufactured systems of folklorish understanding in order to live in that state of celebration of community when the sun shines on every day, regardless of how we name it. Nevertheless, I am still extremely appreciative of these holy days and seek to celebrate them for all that they are worth.
This Thanksgivukkah, I am thankful for the land of milk and honey. I am thankful that life reveals herself to me every day through events which sharpen my skills as an effective and efficient human and relationships that help to define who I really am. I am thankful that, despite my fallibilities as a man-made man, designed through a convergence of culture, clay, and creativity, life continues to give me ample opportunity to learn, grow, serve, and receive through a spiraling kaleidoscope of frustration, elucidation, redemption, and grace
To list everything that I am thankful for would take more time than I have words for so I think I’ll get to just being in a state of thanks and open myself to giving as I appreciate the festival of lights that guide my way..
InkenSoul 