What are you thankful for?

Is it the people who will gather around your table? Is it the ability to provide the food that will fill the plates? Perhaps it is your job or your home. Maybe it is something that makes life a little more enjoyable — a new car or Steelers tickets or the vacation you finally took.

Whatever the things that fill your head and your heart this Thanksgiving, the very act of giving thanks is more than just reveling in the happiness of having.

As much as thanksgiving is an act of gratitude, it is also an act of empathy. You cannot give thanks for your family without thoughts of those who have no one. You cannot appreciate the meal without knowing there are people who are hungry.

This holiday, after years of pandemic and recovery, there are reasons to hold hands and bow heads.

But we must have empathy for the places where that isn’t true and for the people who would look at our lives as examples of good fortune and abundance.

“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest and yet most powerful things humans can do for each other,” said late Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch.

This Thanksgiving, it is important for all of us to see those things that we should be grateful to have. However, we must also see all the things we don’t have to endure.

While we deal with gun violence, we do not deal with wars like Ukraine and Gaza. While we know the terrible toll of antisemitism, we also have seen the world stand with us as we grieved it and sigh with us when justice was delivered.

And while we have seen growing political dissension, at the same time we are seeing unprecedented levels of political engagement. That is important because that kind of action is never an accident. It is a choice.

So is thankfulness. Every Thanksgiving is an opportunity to choose appreciation — as well as the compassion and generosity of spirit that is empathy. Don’t be shy about it. Serve yourself big portions. Take seconds.

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