The AFP offers us a great history lesson on Thanksgiving past and present and how we got here.. As some may realize, Thanksgiving, originally, was probably in late September or early October.. There most likely wasn't much alcohol. There was no butter for pie, just pumpkins.. The main course was probably not turkey, but instead duck and geese.. Abraham Lincoln changed the date of the Thanksgiving tradition to November in the midst of the Civil War .. Lincoln proclaims the fourth Thursday of November the day to give thanks. (Only after pressure from Sarah Josepha Hale who lobbied hard for the last Thursday holiday) The first Thanksgiving: Native Americans sharing their harvest with Pilgrims that needed some extra help. If only the Natives would have been clairvoyant enough to see the future years ahead of their peoples.. Perhaps that first Thanksgiving would not have happened as it did.. But in America, 2007, as the AFP story points out, America has turned its tired and L-tryptophan-ed eyes towards quarterbacks on TV.. their faces full of thanks (or just food) .. each year. We watch MACY'S parades now .. it's warm in New York today, too. No coats necessary for this year's giant balloons and floats. So, as so typical with thoughts of post-modern history, we can ask: Have Americans lost their sense and sensibility of history? The question at heart is fine. Americans too often do lose their ability to think of past events, or even recent events. Busy lives and real problems like the housing market or declining dollar don't effect us immediately but have a long-lasting impact on everything. But it's the long-lasting impact we always don't understand at first. But the question is unfair, too. Americans are thankful for more each year. Even during wartime we be proud of our fighting force--though most Americans in 2007 aren't too happy they allowed the war to happen through popular support. In 2003 the majority of Americans were willing and ready for that 'long struggle' in the war on terror. We become weary quickly. This day Republicans, Democrats, children, adults, Christians, athiests unite under one common bond: Joy and thanks. All of us, from coast to coast, taking a little break from life. And thankful for it, even if it's just happiness for a day off in a world where people seem to work every day of their lives. In our own way. Our new world way. Football, television sets, turkey and trimmings, and laughter and liquor. Nothing wrong at all with that. With all of America's imperfections it's still the perfect nation: The rule of law still prevails. Constitutional liberties--though more worries exist for the future of them--are still being fought for by millions of honest and hard working Americans of all points of view. This Thanksgiving, maybe more than recent years, is one filled with even more reasons to be thankful. Every now and then America has an identity crisis. But when we regain our senses, we become stronger and better. It's those imperfections that make us better. It's those imperfections and honest errors that make us have better choices for the future.. So we go into another Thanksgiving with the hope that next year we will still have all the same reasons to be thankful--and more. It's Thanksgiving 2007. Eat up. Then shop... and shop.. and shop. One of more interesting traditions that Lincoln most likely never envisioned with his Civil War proclamation.