“MORE THAN…” A Thanksgiving Season Thought       There's a line in a song we sang that goes: “Thanks a lot, thanks a lot…Thanks for all I've got.”       Thanks for all I've got? Actually, when I think of it, I'm embarrassed about all I've got. My mind goes to my garage. Unlike many people, we still fit our cars into our garage…barely.       I thought of garages.  In early Corvallis days nobody had garages. Where did they put all their stuff?  Later houses, up through the 50’s had only one garage. Beginning in the 60’s houses were built with two garages. Most folks still couldn't get their cars inside. Then in the 90’s we began to see three garages with a RV pad as well. And it's still not enough room for “all we've got.”       And at Thanksgiving I'm supposed to say, “Thanks for all I've got?” Instead of a of a national thanks giving day it would seem more appropriate to have a national embarrassment giving day. I'm embarrassed for all I've got.       It is worth remembering that the first thanksgiving was observed by poor, miserable people. Many of their number were dead. They were at war with “heathen natives”  They didn't have houses any larger than my garage and all their possessions wouldn't fill one of my closets. While their religious motives for a day of thanksgiving to God are suspect, at least they weren't giving thanks for material abundance.  Their thanks was for something more.       Our text for today, in the 5 Gospels version, reads:”There’s more to living than food and clothing, isn't there?”  It was Jesus’ rhetorical question. It raises the question of the “more.”       I recall that when I was a child we always did Thanksgiving at my grandma Morgan's.  She was legally blind, and honestly poor.  We'd move all the tables together and gather all my brothers and uncles and aunts and cousins and Grandfather Morgan (who was divorced from grandma because he was a philanderer).  Grandma would sometimes go around the table having us all tell something we were thankful for. After we'd all said our piece she'd beam and tell us she was “thankful for my family gathered around this table.” Then she'd pray ”Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies, and us to Thy service.”  She was thankful for “more” than food or clothing.  She was thankful for family.       You can probably think of plenty of more than what you buy at the grocery and mall.  Some things come to mind, like a homeland, freedom, peace, friendships, family, community, work, meaningful activities. There's lots of more that we need for life.       To aid our thinking Jesus suggests that we “consider the lilies…”  Consider almost anything in nature.  A tree, a rose. Even a dandelion.  A few moments of focus, then wonder and awe begin to appear, and ultimately even thankfulness. At a recent Oregon State forum, Kathleen Dean Moore, Chair of the Philosophy Department said: “Sometimes the natural world is so beautiful and so precious that all you can do is stand there and cry.”  “There's more to living than food and clothing, isn't there?”       I've recently finished “Tuesdays with Morrie,” the story of a former student who visits his dying old Sociology professor.  Mitch reports his Tuesday conversations with Morrie.  One day Morrie says, “I'm dying, right?” Yes. “Why do you think it's important for me to hear other people's problems?  Don't I have enough pain and suffering of my own? Of course I do.  But giving to other people is what makes me feel alive. Not my car or house.  Not what I look like in the mirror. When I give my time, when I can make someone smile after they were feeling sad, it's as close to healthy as I ever feel.  Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's thing.”       He knew the secret of “more than.”  May your Thanksgiving be for “more than.” - Art Morgan, November, 1999