Why We Owe Abe Lincoln a Drum Stick

By Lisa SugarmanAbe Lincoln was a genius. And not even for the obvious reasons why people considered him great. Sure, he was the guy who gave us the Emancipation Proclamation and the Homestead Act (definitely great, no doubt), but did you know he was also the guy who gave us Thanksgiving? And boy do we owe him one!It was Lincoln who actually made it a nationally observed holiday in 1863. And do you know why he did it? (This is the genius part.) It was the Civil War Era and times were about as tough as times get, so he did it to brighten peoples’ spirits. He created a diversion so that people could refocus. Smart guy.Now I’m not suggesting that the bad year we’ve all had can be compared to what our forefathers went through during the Civil War, but it’s definitely been a rough ride. The American Dream hasn’t been very dreamy lately and people are feeling battered and tired. Between the piss-poor economy and H1N1, we’re getting picked off like ducks in the open. There isn’t one of us who doesn’t know someone who’s lost a job, been demoted, or filed for Chapter 11. And if you don’t then you know someone with Swine Flu.Everyone’s had it rough and we could all use a distraction. But I think we need more than just a day off to catch up on sleep. I think we need the day to spend a little time giving thanks for how good we still have it. Because we can all sometimes be a little too guilty of focusing on what we don’t have instead of what’s right in front of us. After all, Thanksgiving was designed to make us stop, look, and listen to what we’ve still got even in spite of everything else that might be going wrong.So forget about the ritual part of the holiday for a minute (like the Macy’s Day Parade and all the football) and just think about the day. Everything stops and we just gather. Whatever else may be going on on the periphery, it stays on the periphery for that one day. We spend the day with the people who mean the most: our family and our friends (who might as well be family). And we eat. And we drink. And we repeat. And no matter what’s gone on the day before or what’s going to happen the day after, we enjoy the day. And we should because that’s what Lincoln knew we needed. And we still need it now almost 150 years later.So when you’re sitting down to serve or be served this Thanksgiving, say thanks twice: once for what you’ve got sitting around your table, and again to your buddy Honest Abe for knowing that Tryptophan works a helluva lot better than Tamiflu to cure what ails us.Lisa Sugarman lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Read and discuss all her columns at facebook.com/ItisWhatitisColumn OR read her blog at http://itiswhatitiscolumn.wordpress.com.