Building Community, Giving Thanks!

Picture this, you are sitting around the dinner table with your family and all of a sudden a patrol of Stormtroopers come in and tell you that you can eat but only if you do it without bending your elbows.

What are you going to do?

This problem is a funny and interactive way to teach young children how to problem solve. Go ahead...put a cracker in your hand and see if you can reach your mouth without bending your elbow. Impossible unless your hand has grown out of your shoulder.

And just as you may suspect, the kids are great problem solvers. They know right away that they need to cooperate with their friends and feed each other. And then the kids celebrate, walking around like zombies with their arms stretched out holding bits of food and feeding each other. Spectacular! They are sharing and building community, working together for the common good.

This week many of us will celebrate one and maybe two holidays, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. This a very rare convergence of an American holiday and the first day of the Jewish Festival of Lights...Thanksgivukkah. How rare? This won’t happen again for another 79,043 years!

So what do Thanksgiving and Hanukkah have in common?

Both are festivals of gratitude. Both involve a group of people celebrating a victory and giving thanks. For the Pilgrims, Governor William Bradford organized a feast to celebrate the first  successful harvest and invited Native American allies who shared their knowledge of survival. For the Maccabees, they celebrated the defeat of an oppressive Greek king which eventually allowed the Jewish people to regain their independence.

Throughout history celebrations of thanks and festivals span cultures, continents, and millenia. In so many instances, it is about a group of people working together to have a successful harvest, build a community, or defeat a foe. And upon their success each culture sets aside a day of thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Thanksgivukkah!

Thank you for this opportunity to serve you.

Master Chris Berlow, 6th Dan

Professional Martial Artist, Owner, and Author

UMAC Briarcliff

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