There is a holiday in other countries that lets people pause and reflect about the things in their lives they are thankful for.
We don’t need yet another holiday, of course, but it is good and healthy practice to occasionally take stock of what we already have if only to stem the temptation of brooding over the many things we don’t.
The country, for instance, has been blessed with abundant natural resources which are the source of pride and economic sustenance.
We enjoy democracy, self-government, suffrage and inalienable freedoms. We are able to determine the course of our country, first by the decisions our leaders make—leaders who, through elections, we ourselves installed in power, and second by our own participation in governance.
We have numerous means to express what we think, feel, even imagine, and engage others who may or may not agree with us.
We can remember history, either through the stories of our elders, accounts, or our own recollection.
We have a sense of humor, through which we can still take ourselves lightly even in the most trying of circumstances.
We have been described as a resilient people, able to rise after the toughest blows.
Finally, we have been imbued with a good sense of right and wrong.
We will not be able to do justice to these good things, however, if we sit idly and do nothing about them. There will be greater cause for gratitude, for instance, if we ensure that we do not end with exploiting our natural resources. They are finite, and any negligence in using them or allowing others to dip their hands into them, will entail consequences not only for us but for succeeding generations.
Democracy also does not come automatically to a society. Citizens must be active and vigilant and engaged. We should not squander the opportunity to choose the best leaders not for their mere popularity, charm or promises, but for their potential contribution to nation-building.
We should guard our freedom of expression with our lives, but remember too that it is not absolute. We must use it responsible, constructively, and not invoke it to destroy others for destruction’s sake. It may not be invoked in malicious propagation of disinformation.
We remember many things, so we must take care to learn lessons from the past and refrain from repeating them. Recall the definition of insanity—doing the same things over and over, expecting different results. If we want real change, we must snap out of patterns that have caused our woes.
And as we laugh at ourselves, may it be just so we could see our faults for what they are, correct them, and ensure similar blunders do not happen in the future.
As we take pride in our resilience, may it be so that we would know how to recover fast from misfortune, identify risks and mitigate the, so we don’t get knocked down again—and spend precious time getting back on our feet.
We must use our sense of right and wrong to give credit where credit is due, but most importantly to speak out against injustice, abuse, privilege. This sense will also prevent us from looking the other way and staying silent even if we witness wrongdoing in our midst.
Finally we must also be thankful for the things that make us discontented, unhappy or dissatisfied—they tell us exactly where we need to act, and soon.
