I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We spent it with my brother’s family near Albany, NY. It was a very casual and nice way to spend time with relatives -- as well as to eat some very yummy food.

On Thanksgiving eve, we attended an interfaith service at the First Churches in our hometown, Northampton, MA. I had not attended any kind of pre-Thanksgiving Day church service before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I was pleasantly surprised at how well-organized, moving, and poignant this interfaith service was.

As part of the service, they really emphasized the Thanksgiving tradition from the perspective of American Indians who were already here when British colonists landed here so many centuries ago. Several speakers noted that the original Pilgrims received generous help and assistance from the indigenous Indian nations in this area and that the Indians were not always “repaid” with the same levels of kindness.

The pastor of our church, Edwards Church (Peter Kakos) led a very moving confessional that reminded us why so many American Indians view Thanksgiving with dread and anger. My daughter Sangha also participated in the singing of a couple of traditional American Indian songs to celebrate the fact that there were already settlements here when Northampton was “founded” 350 years ago.

Events such as this remind us how fortunate we are to live in an area that not only offers so much to do, but which has so many people, organizations, and institutions who share our own beliefs and perspectives on social activism and justice.