Mother Nature did her part this year to make Thanksgiving week feel too much like frigid Novembers written about in Snow Belt-setting storybooks. The kind that make one shiver even if they’re read while sitting next to a crackling fireplace. We can all give thanks that near-freezing temperatures and icy rain are not normal backdrops for our Turkey Day celebrations around here.
Yet the weather is not the only thing worth reflecting upon as another joyous weekend shared among family and friends winds down.
As most of us loaded up our plates in recent days, it’s likely that we, however fleetingly, embraced the holiday tradition of thinking about the less-fortunate among us.
That’s a natural and humane instinct, we believe. For many people in our midst remain in considerable need this season. If that seems a constant refrain year upon year — it is. As it’s written in the New Testament’s book of Mark, “For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good … .”
Taking that commonsense advice to heart — and converting it into tangible, achievable action — is a gift all of us can make to our communities and, really, ourselves. It’s a practice that should easily transcend religious and political divides and other bright-line distinctions that so often divide us as Americans these days.
Anyone who felt the shock of Arctic-like air on their face last week while scurrying about Atlanta could easily imagine what it’s like to battle the cold from inside an inadequately heated home. Or what dank concrete feels like to a homeless person huddled under a frigid overpass.
Yes, metro Atlantans, and Americans as a whole, are a generous people. We tend to give freely and substantially of our time and our treasure. That is well, good and admirable.
And Americans in general, and Southerners specifically, are also a people who intuitively understand a stretch goal. Our incessant clamor and bustle as a nation is motivated by doing just a bit more and a bit better each year, and each day.
That same instinct to push higher and farther can also apply to our individual and community charity, we believe. For people and families continue to suffer and struggle around us. Each of us can help in ways large or small. Every bit helps.
Continuing to help people, and finding ways to do just a bit more along these lines will help our fellow citizens and ourselves move closer to achieving and sustaining America’s highest ideals. We’ll be a better, stronger people as a result.
