Thanksgiving Assembly Remarks

As I have mentioned before, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. That is partly because it is the only holiday that is built on an aspect of character—gratitude. Every other holiday is grounded on a historical or religious event or happening. At Thanksgiving, we don’t celebrate something that occurred decades, centuries, or millennia ago. Rather, we celebrate each other and the lives that we are fortunate to have. 

If you are anything like me, recognizing all that I have doesn’t come naturally. I tend to go through my day focusing on the things I don’t have, the things that haven’t gone the way I wished they had, the things I wanted to do but wasn’t able to. As human beings, there is strong evidence that we might actually be hardwired to think this way. Psychologists have conducted studies that suggest that the human brain is more responsive to negative emotions than positive emotions. We notice things we dislike far more than we notice the things we like. We remember negative interactions far more than we remember positive ones. We are drawn to negative stories more than we are to positive stories. This aspect of our psyche has been labeled the “negativity bias,” and has impacted everything from politics to the news to social media. Politicians have learned that it is often more effective to attack their opponent’s record than to celebrate their own. News organizations often lead with negative stories, as those are more likely to be watched or read. Social media algorithms repeatedly present users with videos and posts that are negative and extreme, as those are more likely to grab our attention. 

This aspect of our psyche has also led to increased division in our nation and world. Just as we are hard-wired to focus on the negative more than on the positive, we are also wired to focus on our differences rather than our similarities, and we use those differences to create division. 

For me, the only way to work against this negativity bias is to actively take stock of everything that I have; to step back and force myself to see the positive. I have learned that before I go to bed, when my mind is swimming in the negative aspects of the day, I need to actively walk through the day and name everything that happened that day that I should be grateful for. I wish I could say that I do this every night, but sometimes I don’t have the energy to. But when I do have the discipline to name all that happened that I should be grateful for, I am struck by how different I feel about how the day went. It is as if I lived an entirely different day. 

This is why I love Thanksgiving. It forces us to do what doesn’t come naturally to us—to focus on the positive in a way that unites us. It is worth remembering that while the history of Thanksgiving is often attributed to the Pilgrims and the Patuxet people in 1621, it was 242 years later, in 1863 that Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday. At that time, the Civil War had torn our nation apart. The country was focused on its differences and allowed those differences to create the ultimate division, and one that led to a staggering loss of life. In that context, President Lincoln turned to gratitude to bring the country together—to force us to focus not on the negative, but on the positive, not on what divides us, but on what unites us. 

And so, my ask of you is that, in the days ahead, you stop and actively take stock of what you have, and actively express gratitude for that. Make a list—literal or mental, and sincerely express gratitude for those things. And for the people who appear on that list—your parents, your teachers, your friends—actively thank at least one of them. Write a letter, say a quick thank you. It might feel awkward, but it will mean more to the person on the receiving end than you know, and it will help bring positivity and unity to a world that desperately needs it.

Thank you.