This time of year rings in a few auspicious holidays. The one Americans celebrate this day marks the great bounty that saved European asses. Yes, that’s right, European settlers had a lot to be thankful for. We’ll get to that.
It seems Thanksgiving represents a uniquely American holiday. But more nations celebrate Thanksgiving than one might think. Canada for example celebrates Thanksgiving as commemorating the harvest. So does Liberia, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Japan and Germany, Philippines, Brazil, and Australia to name a few.
But America’s celebration of thanks commemorates more than a bountiful harvest, fertile fields and healthy children. For one, Thanksgiving marked primarily a charter-ordered sacrament intended to “thank God” for a safe arrival to the New World. But what some don’t know is that seminal celebration also commemorated significant support pilgrims got from Native Americans, who gave pilgrims food and taught them skills that saved their lives.
Native generosity
One Native American proved particularly crucial to Pilgrim survival. His name was Tisquantum. Not only did he broker peaceful relations between Pilgrims and the local Pokanokets tribe, he also played a key role in early meetings between Pilgrims and Native Americans, primarily because he spoke English.
Tisquantum lived with the Pilgrims for 20 months, acting as interpreter, guide, and advisor. He introduced settlers to the fur trade and taught them how to sow and fertilize native crops. This last gift proved vital. Without it, the English settlers might have starved to death because seeds they brought from England mostly failed.
It’s interesting reading Tisquantum’s life story. Given what he faced at the hands of the “white man”, you’d think he had no love of Pilgrims. Yet, he and many people of color like Tisquantum worked alongside the “white man” throughout history, thereby building foundations we humanity benefits from even today.
Appreciating what is
It isn’t often mentioned in American Turkey Day celebrations crucial roles non-whites played in ensuring those settlers survived in the New World. One would think more deference would be given to people who so significantly contributed to America’s early survival.
The same holds for contributions of other people of color throughout America’s founding. Instead of deference and appreciation, we see resistance and righteous indignation.
Today, for example, some “dominant culture” people are up in arms as others try righting American history. The latter group wants history to account for and celebrate more prominently, contributions made by people like Tisquantum, and, more recently, by “black” Americans and other people of color.
But those “dominant culture” detractors fear how righting American history would damage their children’s self esteem, ironically, not even giving thought to generations of damaged self-esteems of people of color 400 years of historical whitewashing has wrought. That is the what-is state of America today and perhaps the state of the entire human race.
Which is why we’re eager for the Copiosis transition.
Bringing to light truth
So much history needs righting. But doing so in the world today, as we see, brings so much churn because people’s livelihoods literally depend on stories which perpetuate distortions about what really happened and what really happens today.
We find ourselves in a world where systemic incentives drive a race to the bottom of the manipulation tactics barrel. Incentives to get money from people’s pockets by stimulating limbic responses to often over-hyped or fully made-up negative and fearful “realities.”
Adopting South Africa’s end of Apartheid movement, which included the now famous Truth and Reconciliation Commission, our transition to a national Copiosis economy must include opportunity to surface what really went on systemically, organizationally and individually across modern history. Goings on that people weren’t necessarily proud about, but which made certain people very rich. Often on the backs of everyone else.
A thankful-worthy world
Surfacing those “truths” won’t be about punishment. It will be about atonement. Atonement not through transferring wealth from one group to another, but an atonement in spirit. A cleansing of our collective and individual spirits so we can get on with deliberately creating, together, the world on the horizon.
Copiosis’ transition includes come-clean opportunities for those who’s consciences scream for righting, in the same way our national conscience does, evidenced by #metoo, #blm and more recently, revelations of Facebook’s algorithmic manipulation of humanity.
A time of reckoning is near. The Copiosis transition doesn’t include exacting retribution or punishing Game A winners. It’s about acknowledging what they did, putting it behind us, then welcoming everyone into the New Game. The game we all win. Together.
That’s something worth our collective thanks.
