Happy Thanksgiving

Mark Shea, quoting Secret Agent Man, perfectly expresses the gratitude I feel towards my country:

As the day nears, and preparations leave me little time to write, let me just say that I thank God for allowing me to be part of the United States of America. There are so many things to cherish in this country. I, like other patriots, spend more time and ascii being vexed at her flaws. But even those flaws are mostly the excesses of her virtues:

I love America's pragmatism, but not her amorality;

I love her undauntable courage, but not her fickle wrath;

I love America's enthusiasm for the individual, not her cawing maelstrom of egotism;

I love her speedy power, but not her heedless arrogance;

I love America's optimism, but not her vanity;

I love her free and easy ways, but not her licentious indifference . . . .

I love her.

And I thank God that my life is forever written into her story, however small my thread may be. I could not imagine my life as an English life, or a story from the subcontinent or the vast reaches of Asia. I am an American in my bones and in my blood. Uproot me, and I would die from pining.

God bless the United States of America. I would rather be a citizen of the United States of America than a king or noble in any other country. Good Russians or Thais will feel no slight, for they, too, are justly proud of their homelands, and will never be chagrined at the destiny of their births. But the cathedral of the nations spreads God's design across many colors and forms. And so I taste a light that Europe or Africa will never know, and shout with joy.

Pope John Paul the Great taught us all the line between patriotism and extreme nationalism. He proudly embraced his Polish nationality and culture while never idolizing it. I strive to uphold that standard. The truth is that I am grateful to be an American citizen. For all of my nation's faults, she truly stands astride the world as a beacon of hope for many. She is the only nation in the world whose nationality is not one of ethnicity of race, but of creed--as G.K. Chesterton observed long ago. Whatever the excessess of her people, America's children know that they have the freedom to become whoever they want to become. That is a gift for which all Americans can rightly give thanks.

On that note, let me wish each and every one of you a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving. May your celebration of gratitude bring joy to your hearts. See you all soon!