It is appropriate that at this time of thanksgiving we consider the story we have accepted about Thanksgiving in an honest update. Yes, we all grew up with that nice, convenient picture of native Americans peacefully sharing their bounty with the earliest settlers from Europe. If I were to call them invaders, which they were, you would immediately jump on me. If I were to recount the terrible things they did and that resulted from their presence in this new world to them, you would declare me a liar.
Yet, when the truth does get told we find we have been fed a convenient myth. Perhaps this myth was timely and appropriate when initiated, but myths have a way of persisting. Read the full story in the USA Today for yourself to appreciate just how ugly the story really is.
As we do celebrate this myth please do consider what other things you might accept as truth in your life on faith and search more deeply for understanding. I did that in my faith journey and found some startling things about the origins of my faith. But, rather than throw out my faith just because there was mythological roots to it, I dug deeper to see what you can learn with myth blended in with facts.
What I hope you will find is that you can “grow up” and “grow out” of simple explanations as we get older and wiser. We don’t have to get bitter and become a scrooge yelling “bah humbug” if we are willing to consider broader, deeper, and hopefully higher understandings.