Way back in the 17th Century, Pilgrims in Massachusetts started a tradition we still recognize today – they celebrated the first Thanksgiving. It was a celebration of the harvest. It was a celebration of life since the harvest offered the sustenance necessary for survival at a time when survival was hardly guaranteed.

The story goes that 102 pilgrims made the journey on the Mayflower. Of those who survived the trip, and the first winter in the new continent, only 53 pilgrims were left to celebrate the first Thanksgiving. That means that the harsh conditions of a long sea voyage in the age of sail, and of hacking out an existence in the wilderness of a New World, had cost almost 50 percent of pilgrims their lives. For those who sat down to Thanksgiving dinner, the celebration was very real, even if they had heavy hearts for those they had lost. 

Today, 399 years later, we are approaching another Thanksgiving. This holiday, we are facing a threats to our health – the coronavirus. Customary Thanksgiving celebrations will be tempered this year. For those who usually attend large gatherings for the holiday, this year, the gatherings will be smaller. This has already proven true as the grocery stores are selling more smaller turkeys than ever before. How then should we be thankful when we face this global pandemic?

Is it possible that the conditions under which we’ll celebrate this Thanksgiving will help to create a stronger bridge to the past and that first celebration? It helps to remember that everyone at the first Thanksgiving had experienced close personal loss. That was a fact of life people recognized in 17th Century and for many years after. Today, modern medicine has performed such miracles that the costs of this disease come as something of a shock. But if we look at every day as a blessing and a miracle, the truth is that we have much to be grateful for.

Living here in McHenry, Wonder Lake, Richmond, Ringwood, and Johnsburg, we have the good fortune to live in peace. We have economic opportunity, even if, for some of us, access is delayed by the coronavirus. While our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones to the disease, and for all the hardships we have faced, the cost of COVID has not proven as deadly as was first predicted by the experts. And with news of new vaccines, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

On Thanksgiving, we hope that you will sit down with as many friends and family as is safely possible. We hope you will enjoy a wonderful meal and will enjoy the company of friends in the hearth of your homes knowing that the coronavirus will pass and we will soon return to the splendor of living in McHenry County when things are back to normal.