Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Today’s the day we celebrate a uniquely American holiday — Thanksgiving.

According our tradition, the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people joyfully shared a harvest feast that forms the blueprint for our modern celebration.

Of course, thanksgiving celebrations are probably almost as old as humanity itself and the indigenous people in the New World celebrated their harvests for time immemorial long, long before the Europeans landed at Plymouth Rock.

Some among us might be surprised to learn some Native people hold a contrary view of the event we remember, recreate and celebrate today.

Surely, that’s a conversation we ought to have and a point of view we ought to acknowledge, but today is not the time for that. Our Thanksgiving celebration in America today has a life all its own.

It wasn’t always so. As the Civil War raged across our great nation pitting father against son, brother against brother, President Abraham Lincoln established the Thanksgiving holiday we celebrate today in 1863, more than 160 years ago. We’ve had lots of practice creating this event since then!

So as we gather with our families to gobble turkey and stuffing or ham or roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams, pumpkin and pecan pies and all the other fabulous fixings, the fourth quarter Hail Marys and impossible and improbable come-from-behind victories, I pray you will pause for moment to thank God for His many, many blessings and for our plentiful bounty. I pray you will acknowledge the precious love we share with our families and friends and the fortunate accident of our birth in this, the greatest nation in the history of the world, as we celebrate this truly American holiday — Thanksgiving Day.

Happy Thanksgiving, Lassen County. May God bless America today and every day.