Thanksgiving and Pilgrims Revisited, by way of Tchaikovsky's "Pilgrim Song" and the Negro Spiritual "On My Journey"

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, November 12, 2016

I have a complicated relationship with all United States holidays, and Thanksgiving is no exception ... and because I am at a moment of my life in which I am prioritizing "nur ruhe -- only rest, or peace in English terms, perhaps I am just a bit less tolerant.

Thanksgiving Day is complicated anyhow ... if we are to say that the Native Americans saved the Pilgrims by sharing their food and agricultural techniques, what happened next as more Europeans came to what would become the United States was perhaps the most murderous show of ingratitude in modern history, from sea to shining sea.

On the other hand, it was President Abraham Lincoln who actually made Thanksgiving Day a national holiday because the Union had just barely survived to 1863 in the Civil War. As an African American, I am thankful the Union made it, all the way to the finish ... but I am also part Native American, so the conflict is in my blood over Thanksgiving.

Yet that isn't even the major problem, although that is the historical background to the major problem ... there are bound to be problems with how "holy days" are celebrated if people think they can be holy and countenance genocide and slavery -- crimes against humanity orders of magnitude larger than the Holocaust -- for a few centuries. That sets up cultural problems that last a long time, and those problems are the burden of any thoughtful, historically informed U.S. citizen to bear, not least if she is African American with some Indigenous roots as well.

The major problem, however, has to do with me. I dislike inconsistency ... so, the idea that we can switch giving thanks on for one day a year and then return to the usual as soon as those Black Friday sales hit on Friday leaves me cold. I am past the time in my life that I care to pretend otherwise.

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, November 25, 2016

The silver lining to all this, for which I am grateful: I am free in the United States to be out of step with its performative hypocrisy and hang on to the values for which at least it ideally stands and manages to come through for a few big times every century. I'm into freedom and fairness and kindness toward all people, and that puts me out of step with the bulk of my culture -- but it puts me in step with all people, throughout time and history who are in step with the same values, every day. I am free to be thus in step, and I am grateful to be in a country where I can do that with relatively little hindrance now -- it would not have been so a century ago, but I thank God I live now!

The other silver lining: I do not need a single day to be grateful for all the abundant blessings of my life, so every day is very much alike now ... I do my work for myself and family, get out and walk when the weather permits, work in my journals, listen to my favorite music and discover new favorites, and remain in grateful fellowship with God while doing all of it.

The "Habe Dank" lifestyle does have its advantages ... it opens one's eyes to all the beauty there is in the world in spite of all the struggles ... living in a mild climate is certainly helpful as well ...

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, December 2, 2016

... and that, believe it or not, brings us back to a song about a pilgrim ...

... and of course, since it was originally in Russian, we would be out of order not to have Feodor Chaliapin sing to us how it was done ...

It just so happens that the life of the Christian is described as a pilgrimage in the world, and the original Pilgrims, searching for religious freedom from place to place, outcasts to England, unhappy in Holland, at last made it to a land in which they were completely foreign in 1620 but had no government over them telling them how they had to worship ... so, it is understandable how the connection was made.

My own ancestors, forced to come here in slave ships as early as 1619, also never found themselves at home, and so you have Negro Spirituals like "I'm Rolling Through an Unfriendly World" ... that long track of a pilgrim traveling through an unfriendly world ... "Climbin' a High Mountain, Trying To Get Home" ... so many songs like that, and that strand also links up to German lieder in songs like "Der Wanderer" and "In Der Fremde," where men are lost, unable to get home, but also with "In Der Kirchhofe" and "Der Tod, das ist die kuhle Nacht," in which death at last is the door homeward ... which also turns around again by way of Bach's "Ich habe genug" back to "Soon I Will Be Done with the Trouble of the World" as the Negro Spiritual ... the strand goes around and around, and next week, my favorite musician will return to share "In Der Kirchhofe," one of Brahms's most stunningly picturesque songs that OF COURSE he sung in the most stunning way just before his equally unique take on "Der Tod, das ist die kuhle Nacht."

Yet for TODAY, Tchaikovsky opens up a different door that links to the Negro Spiritual in a different way ... joy on the journey!

"Pilgrim Song" is among the art songs I have played for local singers ... a fellow student of my basso beloved came to our church and chose this as his song many years ago. At the time, in my late twenties, I was not entirely happy with this assignment... it was within my skill, but I am stickler on words and theology ... who exactly made the pilgrim the blesser of all things? Is there not someone already Who did that, roundabout Genesis 2? But I also recognized: I could not ask of Tchaikovsky what I ask of my own Christian ancestors, nor could I ask of my basso's baritone friend what I would expect of my faithful basso, for the baritone had come as far as he could, as respectfully as he could from a different belief system, looking for a song to sing in his friend's church ... to bless us, the best he knew how.

That last thought only came with greater maturity ... at age 42 ... for in that same Genesis 2, in which God completed making the whole world and blessing it, He assigned man and woman and all their descendants to be stewards in it ... to be agents of His blessing ... so, considering COMMON GRACE, Tchaikovsky and the poet and the baritone were all CORRECT... they all understood that gratitude for the things we are in the world with will tend to us become a force for blessing to that world ... which is why we are here in the first place. The holy pilgrim in Tchaikovsky's song, in his gratitude for all the beautiful things he sees on his way to fellowship with fellow believers in Christ's SPECIAL GRACE, finds his place in COMMON GRACE on the way as one who is blessing all Creation that he encounters.

(This is also why a well-studied Christian will always care for the environment ... the Scripture plainly says "The righteous man shows kindness even to the beasts," lays down rules for the use of the plants that leave plenty of room for soil to recover and for the needy to have access to its natural powers without price, and gives one of God's most overlooked promises: "I WILL DESTROY THEM WHO DESTROY THE EARTH." No well-studied Christian DARES destructively exploit the planet and its people for profit.)

That is also how my dear basso and I, in that time of my life, were walking ... and still are, though time and age and health have intervened ... not often in person, but still, sometimes ... once this week, on this day ...

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, November 20, 2023

... he and I were thanking God and leaving all things regarding people better than how we found them, united in our daily seeking to bless all those who fall into our area of purview, including each other. Although we cannot be together in the sense of husband and wife, that does not mean that there is not love ... there always will be, and that love is not confined to just us ... for we are indeed pilgrims in this world, heading to our home above ... finding joy in our stewardship along the way.

Which brings us to this ... let Joan Rivers introduce Florence Quivar, who will share the joy with us here ...

"I wouldn't take nothin' for my journey now ..." heading up Mount Zion ... and finding more joy in the journey than anything else in the world can afford, even with the challenges of the climb ... if one must speak of pilgrims in November, let it be in THIS WAY ... I am grateful that I now have the understanding, in mature years, to be able to revisit even Thanksgiving Day, and struggle no more ... I can bless it instead, just rolling it in on the general march homewards of giving thanks and being a blessing however I can. I will never be in step with the hypocrisy around the holiday in my nation ... and I am grateful that I am free not to be ... after my family elders pass away, I may dispense with the last culturally approved ceremonies that go with the day (but until then, I will bless my loved ones and not fuss with them) ... yet as long as I can walk and the weather permits, I will be somewhere giving thanks on Thanksgiving Day ...

Photo by the author, Deeann D. Mathews, November 13, 2023

... because that is a part of my pilgrimage, giving thanks and being a blessing in service to the Blesser, to all Creation, until I get home.