Thanksgiving is most important holiday of year.Oh, sure, Christmas is grand, and I know it has many, many fans. I'm not knocking Christmas, but The Thanksgiving story is more important. And Easter has its fans, too. Rebirth is a wonderful thing, but I still say Thanksgiving is more important. Yes, kids jump for joy at thought of Halloween. I am sure they enjoy costumes almost as much as overdose on sugar and chocolate, but Thanksgiving story is even more important.
Why?
Because two most important words in English language are "Thank You". This is true for business success, for social pleasure, even for self-actualization.
For business success, a thank you tells a prospect or partner that you are appreciative of what she has just done. It shows you have a genuine interest in that person and business relationship.
For social interaction, expressing gratitude is equally important to show how you value other person and social relationship you have with him. Thank you is a bonding phrase.
But thanksgiving is most important on a personal level for our own happiness. This is true for anybody who has ever lived, but it is even more true for us today.
Consider how much we have. More than any of our ancestors, we live in Land of Plenty. We have more than anybody who lived at any time before. And for those of us who live in developed world, we have more than most people on our little planet even today.
I'm not just talking about our abundance of "stuff". Oh sure, we have ten-foot tall digital color televisions with 594,798,345,691 channels and computers that send us around world faster than speed of a race car on growth hormones. And we have 31 flavors of ice cream waiting for us on every second street corner. And we throw out more "junk" than we ever could find a use for in first place. But we have so much more than just stuff. Consider following:
FREEDOM: More of world lives in a democracy than ever before, and democracy is becoming more open or "democratic" with every year (perhaps in part due to Internet).
OPPORTUNITIES: With freedom and affluence comes opportunity. We have more opportunity to make more money, to earn it way we wish, to choose our profession, our location, even our lifestyle. Women have just about reached equality with men in most of developed world, and more people are able to flee oppressive regimes. Actually, does that not sound like a continuation of original Thanksgiving story?
KNOWLEDGE: Which came first, chicken or egg? With freedom, comes ability to satisfy our curiosity: knowledge. And with knowledge comes a thirst for freedom. Let's face it, idea of "the ignorant masses" has become an anachronism. Even dumbest among us has more knowledge than most people who lived a couple centuries ago. (I said more "knowledge", not more "wisdom", but that's another topic.)