Warning: Language.

According to the American Humanist Association, Monday was Church/State Separation Day. I saved their graphic for the event:

I’m sure this is a “raise awareness” kind of thing, not a celebration thing, since the state of our church/state separation sucks as long as “In God We Trust” is our national motto. I suppose we should be grateful that it isn’t worse, however, which brings me to Thanksgiving.

May I take this opportunity to wish my US readers a belated happy Thanksgiving. My husband and I spent the day with my parents, and were hoping to see my sister-in-law this weekend, but unfortunately it appears that we have to wait for Christmas to see her. She lives four hours away so seeing her is not something we get to do very often.

My husband, a full atheist (unlike me), posted this story on Facebook yesterday, and I thought it was worth including here. We had a small discussion about whether the term “godless” was a negative term, similar to “childless”, but he pointed out that the connotations are different, so it’s not a negative term.

Somewhere in the mess that is this house, I have a copy of the book “Living in Gratitude: A Journey That Will Change Your Life.” It’s a program to establish a daily gratitude practice, month by month, for an entire year, which I tried and failed to do. Maybe, like my friend at Melting-Pot Dharma, I resent it when it becomes an obligation, something that I have to do. Ideally, there’s nothing wrong with stopping for a moment, or a day, and being grateful for what you have. Should we as a culture mandate that everyone stop on the same day and give thanks to the god or gods of your choosing? Maybe not.