The danger of thankfulness

     Years ago I took part in a simulation exercise ("game") called, if I recall, "Starpower." The purpose of the game was to illustrate the dynamics of inequality and social class.

     Each of us participants was issued an envelope with tokens of some type. Some tokens were worth $25, some were worth $10, and some were worth $2. The tokens were spread around randomly among the participants. We were then told to bargain with one another for something--I forget what we were trying to "buy" with the tokens.

     I had more than my share of $25 tokens, and I was able to bargain very successfully. I remember very clearly my emotional response to the situation. I felt blessed. God had been good to me.

     Then I reflected. My blessedness was the result of random chance. I did nothing to "deserve" my advantage. God had nothing to do with my success.                                                                                                                                                                          

     The media I watch and listen to--mostly public broadcasting (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR)--are making me aware of what is happening as I write this: in Gaza, in southern Lebanon, and in Haiti. In these places people are seeing their homes destroyed, husbands and fathers killed in front of their families, women raped, and everyone lacking sanitation, health care, and even food and water. Here I am, living quietly in Quincy, Illinois. The trees have just shed their beautiful leaves, and people are preparing for Thanksgiving travel and Thanksgiving dinners. I am blessed.

     But what did I do to deserve this? Why was I not born in Gaza or Haiti?

     True, my parents worked to create a home where I could grow up healthy and without violence. What did they do to deserve the advantages that allowed them to raise me?

     Those gifts to them and to me were not only blessings from God. Many people contributed to those blessings. People left their homes in Europe and began new lives in this country. The men and women who founded this country struggled to set up a constitution that would "make it easier for people to live good lives" (to quote, I believe, Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day's colleague in founding the Catholic Worker movement). A fair amount of struggle against violence and injustice made our "American" way of life possible.

     We all get used to things. We get used to our advantages, and soon we think it is normal for us to be advantaged, and that somehow that's the way things ought to be. We come to see ourselves as virtuous, and as blessed.  If we want to feel pleased and grateful, we see our blessedness as caused by our virtue.

     The danger is that we then begin to see other people's lack of blessedness as the result of their lack of virtue. That allows us to ignore them and to neglect seeing ways that our blessedness might have contributed to their troubles.

     Some politicians can accuse us of being "woke" when we talk about such things. But that is the kind of wokeness that Jesus and the Old Testament prophets tried to create in us.

     So in this Thanksgiving season, I am going to be grateful for the blessings I enjoy, but along with my gratitude I hope to be compassionate toward people who do not have the same blessings I have. I will think about how "but for the grace of God" I might have been in their shoes.

     Such thoughts might make me feel warm and cozy. But my mind must roam further and explore the stories of how some nations came to be poor and some nations to be rich. Sin may have played a part in creating my blessedness.