Thanksgiving Challenge - Cultural Analysis Bonus Time

@carolkean nominated me for the Thanksgiving Challenge, where we speak of three things we are thankful for.
And like @poet whom Carol also nominated, I come from a culture where the concept of "thanksgiving" or of "giving thanks" is not as entrenched. No, not fully entrenched, and we're not talking just of American versus Israeli, but more of Christian versus Jewish societies, and of religious versus secular.

Cultural Differences:

Look at the way the challenge is spelled out, things we are thankful for. But there is quite a difference between being thankful to/wards someone and being thankful for something.
When you are thankful to, you specify who it is you are thanking, and then you usually say why.
When you are thankful for, you specify what it is you are thankful for. You don't say who it is you are thanking.
And this omission is because it is assumed you are thanking God.
And so when you give thanks to, you are a person interacting with other people. When you are thankful for, regularly, it is a religious act, that comes from a religious upbringing, even if it is not spelled out.

Now, the act of "thanking for" is actually present in Judaism, except you spell out it is God. During Passover you have blessings in the form of a song, one of the lines is, "Thank the Lord, cause his grace his eternal," and "Thank the Lord" (השבח לאל in Hebrew ("Ha'Shevach La'el")) is quite common as well. But you thank God in Judaism for specific things, and you spell it out. There is no thanking for, with it being "obviously" God in it, which also lets it into the secular culture by the backdoor.

So, I'm going to be thanking to, in this post. Thanking for is not part of my belief or cultural framework. And if I'll be thankful for, I'll also specify who it is I am thanking.

Giving Thanks:

I thank the cat-horde members. I thank Roger for being so fully of love, and intelligence, and letting me pet him for 30-60 minutes when he comes in. For being my companion, and showing me he cares. I thank Bella, Freddie, Barry, Moosh, and Chamoriko, that whenever I step outside they rush to me, and try to trip me up in their quest to get pets. And all the other cats for being there and uplifting my spirits and keeping me company as I sit in the sunlight, because we are family.

I thank @mamadini, for all she has taught me, and is teaching me. For all the life lessons she is patiently helping me unlearn. For the gift of words, her poetry, and mine, and the words that underlie poetry most of all. For being the wild yet cultivated flower. For choosing to be free, and yet return.

Do you know what my favourite day of the year is? The day when we switch to Daylight Saving Time. I love sunlight. I love the day. And that day is glorious. So I am thankful to whoever it is who came up with that system, and then to whoever decided to implement it in the country where I reside.

Bonus Entry:
I am thankful for my health and energy levels (sleeping 15+ hours a day notwithstanding). I am not thankful to God for these, but to luck, to happenstance, to genes, and to my own hard work on these things. Because it has been, and still is, hard work. I am thankful that it lets me accomplish more things, to not feel like more years are going down the drain. Thank you, life, for being enjoyable once more.

And I'm not going to nominate anyone, because that was never my style. Instead, if you want to be thankful for something, and especially if you are thankful to somebody, you should let them know. There's nothing quite like being thanked.

Check out my latest posts:

• Steemitschool Poetry Class - Recording and Notes- Critique Thursday Class #2 - 29/3/18
• Faith - Poetic prose.
• When Marnie Was There - Farewell to Studio Ghibli

Art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics

The image used in this post is Andrea Solari's Copy of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, 1520, and is public domain.

© Guy Shalev 2018.