For decades, Thanksgiving has offered us a day to celebrate and to reflect on our many blessings. However, this year, this familiar holiday may just serve as a much-needed respite from the unusual level of divisiveness and political rancor that has permeated our everyday existence for months. All of higher education has donned battle gear to wrestle not only with policy changes but with other more pressing challenges, such as the impact of the longest government shutdown in history and the threat it brought to SNAP recipients. These past few months have been a hard pull for those of us who serve the most economically challenged communities.
However, despite all that, we have continued to do the two things we do best: celebrate and serve our students while collaborating and supporting each other. So, for one extended weekend, we can forget about politics, the state of the economy, and the general feeling of weariness. We can take time to be thankful for the many ways in which we are blessed in our profession and the choice each of us made to embrace the communities we serve. To me, the spirit of “Thanksgiving” is a season of affirmation and respite, a time to celebrate the common bonds we share rather than do battle over the ones on which we disagree.
My Thanksgiving message, then, is a blessedly simple one. I salute and celebrate those of us who bring vision, intelligence and strength to our classrooms, whether our role is in them or in support of them. Our jobs are demanding, and our work is not easy. But there are few professions that provide as much gratification as ours does. We do not work at a community college because we could not get a job anywhere else. Those of us who make our careers there do so because we fall in love with a mission that touches our hearts. If we were not community college professionals, many of us might well have become social workers.
So, enjoy the extended Thanksgiving break as a “time out” of sorts, far removed from our campuses. Eat lots of turkey or tofu; go for a hike; watch enough football to prove you really know how to be lazy; or just veg out on the couch to watch old movies in your pajamas with a huge bowl of generously salty, buttered popcorn in your lap.
Whatever your family’s Thanksgiving Day traditions might be, I hope your day is joyful and fulfilling and that each of us is well fed and well sustained by the love and fellowship of family and friends. For a few days, just enjoy being alive, alert, and enthusiastic!