Thanksgiving is the holiday that encompasses all others. All of them, from Martin Luther King Day to Arbor Day to Christmas to Valentine’s Day, are in one way or another about being thankful. But Thanksgiving is freed from any particular thing we are thankful for. We aren’t celebrating the Pilgrims, but what the Pilgrims celebrated. (The Pilgrims weren’t even a feature of the holiday until the late nineteenth century.) Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but there’s nothing specifically American about it — we aren’t celebrating America, but American ideals. Its openness makes it available to
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