I am not one to celebrate most holidays.

Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day – all of them hold significance for lots of folks, I’m sure. But some holidays aren’t worth it. For example, we long ago gave up on the commercialism of Christmas. Halloween? Not even a real holiday. July Fourth? Every day should be July Fourth. Labor Day? Don’t remind me I work. But Thanksgiving has always struck me as a day unlike the rest.

Thanksgiving is different. It is the most significant holiday because it calls on us to do two things: (a) appreciate the good in our lives, especially the good people, and (b) think about where our blessings come from and that many other people don’t have them – they are not entitlements. So it’s both joyful and sobering. It reminds us that if we are alive, we have something for which we should be thankful. It urges us to value all our relationships and to turn away from what separates us from one another. And it urges us to work for peace and to better the lives of those who have less.

Of course Thanksgiving is about family. It is an opportunity to express our too-often-unexpressed appreciation of our family and friends.

We have much to look forward to. My grandchildren – Baraka, 10; Safiya, who was born on my birthday eight years ago, and Judah, who is 7 years old going on 17 – all made First Honors at their schools. They spend their time playing many of the games I played in my youth. In addition, they read and write stories and spend a good deal of time watching television and learning words I learned only much later in life. My youngest grandchild, Noah, is slightly more than a year old.

The children in our family know what it means to grow up with loving and concerned parents. We’re all grateful for that; we know that supportive and loving parents usually make the difference in the way children prosper. A joyful home is the basis for most happiness.

Here’s one legacy of the good home in my past: Our parents taught us early in life that while it’s easier to hope and pray, what gets you ahead are hard work and dedication to purpose. Know what? It wasn’t bad advice. Here’s another legacy: When I was young, I made a silent pledge I continue to live with today. Whatever I do, I ask myself this: If my mother and father were watching, would I be proud or ashamed? If they would not approve, I’d better think twice about doing whatever it was I was thinking.

Both of the legacies I just listed are reasons to be thankful.

I don’t think my mother, Hazel, would mind if I shared her age with you. Proud to have reached her ninth decade, she is healthy and happy and lives very contentedly in an assisted-living facility that ensures she can exercise her independence.

Her wish this year is to be with her family. We will pick her up and bring her to our home, where she’ll spend time with some of her children and grandchildren. The air will be crowded with laughter, talk, reminiscences, and the unmistakable aromas of turkey, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, rice and gravy and green vegetables.

Every year we take a moment to say a few words of appreciation concerning our father, Phil, who is no longer with us. But it’s our mom we thank for creating and heading up our strong family. We have been fortunate – not without problems, but we’ve had the strength and resiliency to overcome them so far. That’s one more thing to be thankful for.

And now to the other side of Thanksgiving. I’ve been listing the blessings and the joyful side, but there’s also a meditative side, one that, in many ways, embraces the range of emotions of all the other holidays.

In remembering the gifts of living here and now, where we live, in the families we live in, we need to recall the price of our good fortune. That means remembering those who have sacrificed so we may go forward with our dreams, those who have been lost in the effort to protect the rest of us.

We need also to remember the public servants who guide and govern this country. Politics has nothing to do with it. We should pray for the president and for all those who must make the big decisions in our behalf.

And no matter how full the table is, no matter how good we’ve got it, the thought comes that it isn’t easy or good or peaceful for everyone. So the prayer, at so many Thanksgiving tables, for peace throughout the world. For justice.

And the final truth: As we give thanks, others have less. We should share some of our good fortune with them.

To them, we extend our best wishes for a better New Year. For those who have had suffering and loss, we hope what is lost can be made whole. It is our sincere hope that every family will gain in strength and appreciation for each of its members.

Here’s wishing a happy Thanksgiving to one and all.