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On a background photo of Black Friday shoppers, the words read, "Happy north American Heritage Day1).
Native American Heritage

Native American Heritage

Today is officially designated as Native American Heritage Day. That’s right. Out of all the days in November, which also is supposed to be Native American Heritage Month, the day they designated as THE day to honor Native American heritage was Black Friday. Sure. Nobody’s thinking about anything else today. They codified this into law not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. H.J.Res. 62 was enacted and signed into law by President George W. Bush on Oct. 8, 2008. The following year, the same sponsor (Hispanic Congressman Joe Baca, a California Democrat) reintroduced it (with…

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Happy Thanksgiving
Blessings to count

Blessings to count

Happy Thanksgiving! It’s Thanksgiving in the USA this Thursday. Many nations, cultures, and religions through the ages and throughout the world have designated official days to give thanks. But seriously. No matter what day it is, there are always blessings to count. If you don’t think that ‘s true–or at least not for you—you’re overlooking some important aspects of your life. Including that you have one.  What blessings? It’s a near-certainty that there are people who love you. Please note: companion animals count as “people” for the purpose of…

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In search of Thanksgiving peace

In search of Thanksgiving peace

That’s the point of Thanksgiving, isn’t it? To break bread together, to join with each other over a table of plenty (or at least, we hope, “enough”), to mend fences, to heal wounds, and to come together. But we live in a rough time. Post-election, wounds are still raw. Gains and losses are still bitter. And many peoples’ Thanksgivings will be times of strife, if we’re not careful. So, then, what to do? I’d hope that we’ll seek the more excellent way (I Corinthians 12:31), or in other words, the…

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What is food insecurity?

What is food insecurity?

The Artdog Image(s) of Interest  November is the month of Thanksgiving, a traditional celebration of feasting in the United States (several other countries also celebrate Thanksgiving days of one sort or another). We traditionally think of this as a time of harvest, of feasting, and of plenty. But for much of the world, much of the time–including in our own USA–food on the table isn’t a “given” at all, and “plenty” is an abstract concept. My Images of Interest for the rest of…

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For Companion Animals

For Companion Animals

Day Six: Gratitude for Companion Animals When placed up there next to some of the other massive issues (yesterday I was talking about global food security, for example), the blessing of having a companion animal in one’s home at first doesn’t seem to be in exactly the same league. But human-animal bonds are ancient and strong. I have argued on this blog in the past that the history and development of humans would have been considerably different without domesticated animals–especially dogs (dogs are my ultimate…

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For Food Security

For Food Security

Day Five: For Food Security I feel more conflicted about this one than I have about my previous gratitude topics. Not that food security is not a marvelous blessing–it truly is, in every sense of the word.  But I’m aware that all around me–in my community, across my nation, and around the world, there are many, many people who do not share this blessing. To express public gratitude for it, in the knowledge of such widespread lack, almost feels like gloating….

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For my Callings

For my Callings

Day Four: Grateful for my Callings The idea that one has a “purpose” or a “calling” on one’s life is another one of those universal thoughts that many different spiritual traditions have identified. I’ve connected to mine through my Christian faith, but you don’t have to be a Christian to know you have gifts and talents, or passions in life that call to you. I think it’s part of human psychology, deep-rooted in our social-animal nature, to want our lives to make a difference in the world….

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For Peace

For Peace

Day Three: Grateful for Peace Peace is a slipperier concept than you might at first think. For starters, what kind of peace am I grateful for? Do I mean inner peace? Yes. Do I mean domestic peace? Yes. Do I mean peace in my community? Yes. Do I mean peace in the world? Yes. I am grateful for whatever moments, or fragments, or aspirational visions of peace I can grasp. It seems ironic to me that everyone seems to want peace, or at least they say they do–but still there actually is so little of it to be encountered in…

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For Religious Freedom

For Religious Freedom

Day One: Grateful for Religious Freedom On many calendars, this is the first day of the week, so I figure this is a good place to start my Seven Days of Gratitude project for the week of the US Thanksgiving holiday. Throughout my life, gratitude and thankfulness have repeatedly come up as important themes. I welcome this holiday each year as an opportunity to explore them once again. My daughter recently started a “Gratitude Journal,” a daily recording of at least one thing each day…

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DIY Space Station: Farmers in the sky

DIY Space Station: Farmers in the sky

As I’ve been designing a space-based habitat that is home to the characters in my “XK9” novels, one of the recurring questions is how will these people feed themselves? On the eve of the US Thanksgiving holiday, it seems an especially apt question. Space Farmer by Jay Wong: if we’re out there, we’ll have to eat. As you may have picked up from comments I’ve made in several of my previous “DIY Space Station” posts, I have some rather pointed…

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