A President That Actually Embodied Thanksgiving. Now, That Would be Gravy.

In a world losing its grip on empathy and a country losing its grip on leadership — maybe the best Thanksgiving gift is a reminder to all that America started with refugees, risk-takers, and misfits dreaming of a new way of life and willing it into existence. 

Why? Because this moment we’re in — the shouting, the border panic, the performative tough-guy routines, the whole “shut it all down” energy — it’s all backwards. Not because we don’t need order and tighter immigration rules. We absolutely do. But because we’re pretending our entire country wasn’t seeded by people doing whatever it took to escape violence, persecution, and a government that treated them like pests.

To be clear: This isn’t a leftist “throw the borders open” kumbaya. This is a rally cry to remember who the hell we are as Americans. And what it truly means to give and receive thanks with grace.

The Story All Americans Should Know But Can Rarely Recite

A small group of families — hunted by their government, harassed, spied on, arrested — sells everything they own for pennies just to run for their lives. They try escaping once and they get caught. They try again. Get split up. Their leaders get locked up, and they still don’t quit.

They finally invest all they have left to escape aboard two floating death traps and entrust a small crew with their lives. One ship nearly sinks. The other barely holds together with a medieval house jack. Sixty-six days of horror ensue with storms, disease, famine, death. A guy gets tossed overboard and hauled back in like a cod. A baby’s born in the middle of the Atlantic. It's almost November in 1620. 

'Land ho!' is shouted. But they've landed in the wrong place. Many miles north of their intended destination,  where winter is fierce and there is no shelter. There are no refunds or return tickets. They're on their own to figure it all out. And they do. In fact, they thrive. Partially through shear will and inner spirit. But also for expressing respect and gratitude to the indigenous people there well ahead of them who would teach them how to survive.  

Fast forward: Enduring all they have and forgiving God for all they've lost, they've built a community, created a formal pact, and recognize the importance of formally expressing their thankfulness, along with their indigenous neighbors, with a multi-day feast. They eat. They drink. And they behave with gratitude toward each other, and their shared earth, for providing the care and sustenance they all needed to take care of their families and start not just a new life, but a new world. 

So, why does gratitude look so messed up today? 

There was a time when the world saw the Office of the President as a lighthouse. Now the bulb flickers like a broken streetlamp behind a Southie Dunkin’. Because somewhere along the way — in our politics, our workplaces, our families — we started turning gratitude into a test. A measurement with a scorecard on whether we are seen, valued, appreciated enough. And just this week, it spilled out onto the world stage. The President suggested that Ukraine’s President Zelensky “hadn’t shown enough thanks” toward the United States for assisting in their war against Russia. Except Zelensky has thanked the U.S. so many times that journalists had no trouble pulling up clip after clip after clip.

So, what was the moment really about? Not geopolitics. Not peace or diplomacy. It was about the leader of the free world's need to be thanked — publicly, repeatedly, and in a style he personally approved of.
And that’s the trap. Because the minute you start requiring thank yous, you’re no longer talking about gratitude. You’re talking about ego. You’re talking about insecurity. You’re talking about being the center of a story that was never supposed to revolve around you.

The Pilgrims didn’t survive for each other to get a pat on the back. They didn’t endure and will their community into existence for recognition. They didn’t sit down at that first feast with a list of who owed whom what. They were grateful beyond words and humbled to be alive among the living. And that's the point that escapes this President on every Thanksgiving of his life. 

I'm thankful you read this.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

- Dave Strand



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Photo: "Gratitude and Grace" - DS