Thankful
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Cornucopia
10 min read
The author opens by questioning whether the cornucopia is a universal symbol or specific to American Thanksgiving. The Wikipedia article covers its ancient Greek origins, mythological significance, and evolution as a symbol of abundance across cultures.
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Robert Sapolsky
13 min read
The author references 'Sapolsky be darned' when discussing free will and whether gratitude is determined by 'biology plus math.' Sapolsky is a prominent neuroscientist known for his work on determinism and the biology of human behavior.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: As I am beginning the holiday family chaotic shenaniganry this week and into the next few, I thought I’d repost this ‘mess’ay from a couple years ago on the current holiday we celebrate at this time each year in this country. But! Since I wrote this back in 2023, I thought it’d be fun if I annotated it with additions and commentary as I get the impulse. Sound cool? Cool. Here ‘tis: the ‘mess’ay is as it was originally, and all footnotes will be current day commentary.
I wasn’t able to get past the paywall on this one but I am fascinated by this concept, put forth in The Intrinsic Perspective:
“...whatever things you specifically are thankful for are, they are mostly an outcome of biology plus math. For we humans have been blessed by evolution with a long lifespan. This, in turn, means that our lives intersect with the mathematics of chaos.”
I feel like I have way more of a choice than this, Sapolsky be darned. But I do see a sort of plague of thankfulness expectations1 (particularly around the holidays), and it has always rubbed me wrong. Let me explain.
One Christmas, when I was a young teenager, I received a wooden jewelry box as a gift from an uncle-by-marriage I’d never met. It was pretty, in an understated way, with a butterfly carved into the lid. I expressed aloud how pretty I thought it was, then considered; with its large size and the fact that I had three others, I didn’t know if I could use it. I shared the back room of the trailer we four lived in (parents, me, sibling), with my little brother after all, and the trailer’s tiny bathroom certainly had no room for it, as all four of us shared that.
I got screamed at for ten minutes straight after saying so. How dare I not express gratitude; didn’t I know my uncle had carved that lid himself (I didn’t); I should be thankful. I don’t even deserve it, but I should be thankful for it. The yelling went on and so I retreated from the living room floor under the Christmas tree into my half of that back room in the trailer, until things cooled down a bit.
...This excerpt is provided for preview purposes. Full article content is available on the original publication.