Some philosophies about Thanksgiving.

Let's look a little bit into what Thanksgiving means as a holiday.
When it started out, Thanksgiving was more or less established as a holiday by English pilgrims to the new world (mainly Quakers) seeking to plant a free state of their Protestant religious denomination the way they couldn't in the old country, and they started a festival of eating good food, in communion with the American Indians with whom they established a healthy rapport, as a way of expressing gratitude toward God for all that they had been granted.
Such a way of expressing gratitude should be remembered in Thanksgiving today.  The name of the holiday implies it; we may deny it, at least most of us, but we have a lot we can use by which to live today for which we should be thankful.  Look at all the modern technology we can employ to further our cause if we just put our minds to learning how to use it.  And look at the concept of democracy so many people, sadly, are choosing en masse to ignore in America.  We should not only be thankful for that, we should be reaching out collectively and taking a firm grip on it.  We can't just let our power-mad leaders run everything.
In my own case, I'm thankful—and people cannot convince me otherwise—for the loved ones I have that see me through life.  I'm also thankful my original status of publication as a fiction writer occurred, even though it may not have lasted.  And I'm thankful I at least have some friends, even if people are so foul and so dishonest that they will not allow me to say that they are real friends.  What I say is, get a clue.  This is not high school anymore.  These friends are on the same level as me.
Don't get me wrong.  I can't let my troubles get to me.  I'm thankful also for the blessings I have, and there are many that I recognize.  A home, financial security, people who know and trust me, lots of material possessions that I can use.  Many people don't have any of these things.
I'll close out by looking at the culinary aspects of Thanksgiving, just to lighten the tone a little: eating the aforementioned good food is an irrevocable staple of it, and I know an awful lot of us look forward to pumpkin pie as the universal dessert.  Sure, I dig that.  And for the turkey, I'm personally more inclined toward the dark meat.  The bird is the word.
Happy Thanksgiving, yawl.