Consul General Speeches

Interfaith Ceremony Celebrating Thanksgiving, The English Reformed Church, Amsterdam, November 27, 2008

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and a special greeting to the young people who have joined us this evening.  To all, Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is above all a holiday that is meant to be spent with family and friends.  It’s a time for gathering together, for coming home, for enjoying a sumptuous meal.  It’s a time to reflect on the many things for which we are grateful and enjoy the spirit of sharing that began with the original Thanksgiving harvest celebration.

Across the Atlantic today, people have been waking up early to make that special stuffing – or perhaps that special dressing – depending on what part of the United States you come from, with a recipe passed down through generations, first from grandmother to mother, and now from mother to child.  If you live in the northeast, you might have a couple of pumpkin pies being kept cool in the garage.  Everyone has their own ideas about how long the turkey should cook.  Hopefully the argument over canned versus homemade cranberry sauce will be resolved peacefully.

And while the kids play outside and the grownups talk in anticipation of a mighty meal, the quiet reassurance of a family celebration settles over those who have traveled far, or not so far, simply to be with each other.

I miss these things.  And I miss being able to share them with the people that understand these traditions so well, so unquestioningly.  Yet standing here beneath a stained glass window that commemorates the Pilgrims’ courageous journey to the New World, I once again marvel at my great fortune to be in Amsterdam at Thanksgiving.

For to live in The Netherlands is to be able to conjure the people from an earlier time who gave us the historical underpinnings of our modern holiday.  You can hear the footsteps of the Pilgrims echoing in the cobbled streets of Leiden, where they resided for nearly 12 years in preparation for their journey into the wild.  You can hear their whispered prayers in Leiden’s Pieterskerk.  You can envision that strong, determined community gathering their belongings on a summer day in 1620 for departure on the quay in Delftshaven.  If you try hard enough on a sunny day in that lovely little harbor, you might just make out the outline of a sailing vessel like the Speedwell, the ship that carried the Pilgrims to England, where they eventually departed on the Mayflower for a hopeful but unknown future across the ocean.

This autumn, I decided it was about time I update my grade school history lessons about the founding of the Plymouth Colony and read more deeply about the Mayflower crossing; the experience of the Pilgrims in the New World and their interactions with its native inhabitants.

In reading Nathaniel Philbrick’s excellent history of these events, he is unsparing in the extraordinary detail with which he recounts the hardships borne by the Pilgrims.  Many of them did not survive the crossing and still more fell gravely ill as they struggled to carve even the most rudimentary dwellings out of the dense forests along the rocky coastline.  A mother, bereft of the young son she left behind in The Netherlands falls over the side of the Mayflower and is lost.  Men exploring the coast suffer from frostbite in the bitter cold.

The fledgling settlement in Plymouth would not have survived without the determination of the Pilgrims and vital assistance from the Native Americans with whom they had an uneasy and sometimes confrontational relationship.  Yet despite the chasm between these vastly different peoples, they were able to come together in 1621 and celebrate the settlement’s first successful harvest.  From this beginning our great tradition has evolved, all the while keeping at its center the essential elements of humble gratitude and fellowship.

It is in the spirit that we gather here this evening.  And I am particularly grateful for the continuing support of the English Reformed Church, its congregation, and the people who have volunteered to participate in today’s service.  We are honored to have the opportunity to mark Thanksgiving Day in this remarkable setting, surrounded by a generous and caring community, joined by new friends as well as old.

Each year, the President of the United States issues a proclamation in honor of Thanksgiving Day.  John F. Kennedy, in his last Thanksgiving proclamation in 1963 wrote, “As we express out gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

Some of you may have volunteered your time and energy to teach school children about the origins of Thanksgiving.  Some of you may have taken the time to try to find pumpkin, or cranberries, or made drawings of turkeys by tracing your children’s hands in an effort to continue here the Thanksgiving traditions that shape a family’s history.  The representatives of different faiths here this evening have volunteered their time to be with Americans and their extended families in The Netherlands to come together in fellowship.  Each, in his or her way, is taking time to give a portion of themselves.  And these acts of generosity help reinforce the message of Thanksgiving:   that it is important to take time to reflect on our lives, be thankful for what we have, and express gratitude to others.  Not just to utter words, but to live by them.

As we give thanks for the blessings in our lives this season, we also look to those who may be struggling to find warmth or meaning in this special day.  Today, our thoughts go out to those who suffer from illness, or want, or loneliness.  And our hands reach out by donating food to the needy, or giving what we can to a worthy cause.  We need no reminder of the troubles of our time.  Yet in such hours there is also a call to service – to give as we can from the talents and benefits we possess.

So we return home this evening, let us take a moment to reflect on what we can give, as well as giving thanks for what we have received.