It’s that time of season once again to celebrate victory over our friends and family.

Now, that could also include our so called “extended family” of course, namely, our co-workers, fellow church members, team members, and hey, why not?-- all of our superiors and inferiors alike!

It is impressive, that for the most of us, Thanksgiving has become yet another hypocritical and insincere holiday far removed from its origins and purpose. It is not surprising that the giving of thanks, formerly a humble acknowledgement of our human dependence on God, has really become yet another “holy day” celebrating self reliance and self aggrandizement.

Have you noticed that Thanksgiving is now called “Turkey Day”? So, after devouring this huge flock of innocent, helpless birds, we turn on our impressive high-def TVs to watch yet another flock of the like-minded running to and fro in hot competition—all day long. And in the spirit of thanks, for at least this one day of the year, our women dutifully clean up after us for the sake of “tradition” as we enjoy our well-deserved tryptophan highs.

How sad. It is a wonder why the ACLU hasn’t formally added “Thanksgiving” to its list of holiday purges, since Thanksgiving hints of a time when everyone once believed in something greater than ourselves, otherwise known as a belief in a benevolent God who has a purpose in our lives and still wants to give us good things that we don’t deserve. I know there are still many sincere, believing people rendering true thanksgiving wishes to others, but I can not escape my personal perception that many do not seem to be in touch with their truer dual identities.

Not to compete with the Myers-Briggs personality pigeon holes, but there seem to be four groups of people that tend to emerge near the end of every year, beginning with Turkey Day and the onset of winter, followed by Christmas, New Year’s, and beyond. They involve four combinations of our most primitive character traits – give, and get.

Most of us live in the largest group, the “Give-to-Get” group. That is, we have essentially become transaction artists. We’ve learned, primarily through daily business interactions, that everything we do has a relentless “business” interest. We’ve learned the marketing skills necessary to trick others into trading with us. We love to give in order to get. Sadly, we seamlessly take this attitude into our personal lives since “giving to get” is so endemic in our competitive culture. We even apply it to our families, friends, husbands, wives, relatives, and embryos. Slick is good in the collective neighborhood.

There’s nothing worse than a guy who joins a church or Bible class for the dual purpose of selling life insurance to it’s members. Or the new consultant who marginalizes and manipulates his assigned staff, calling everyone “family”, while secretly plotting to remove the “inferior” before the holidays. Getting signatures for that life insurance policy, or “cleaning house for the greater good” – now that’s cause for turkey, turkey, and more! What a thankful day it is! Praise “him” from whom all blessings flow!

The just “Get” group is significantly fewer in number. As the less savvy, they think they can “take” without a song and dance first. On the left side of the bell curve, they are the playground bullies and cry babies who haven’t grown up or haven’t matured enough to know how to rig the game. They don’t know how to wear that happy face before the sting.

The “Nothings”, (neither Givers or Getters), are those of us who have played both games, giving and getting, but have been so bruised by both experiences that “Giving Up Thanks” seems to be our only option. For this group, there is no correlation at all between doing good or not. We think and expect there to be some “spiritual” formula for health, wealth and happiness. We have tried all sides of the give-get spectrum, but can make no sense of any technique whatsoever that makes us very happy. So we end up blaming Bush for everything.

Then there is the “Get-to-Give” group, or Robin Hood character types. They wear virtual costumes in order to disguise the fact that they are really “Give-Getters”, otherwise identified as socialists disguised as Democrats.

But the last group, the “Givers”, is odd, because there is absolutely no natural logic to the idea of doing something for others expecting nothing in return. But that is a subjective analysis from afar. For the simple “Givers”, the members of this group aren’t even capable of conscience transactional interactions. For the rest of us struggling to overcome our weaknesses, we live in contrast to the natural character traits of the few who don’t have the hidden agenda of “get” – at all in their character. It is even more mystifying that most of these people are poor, meek, and righteous by nature. They are not very successful, by “give-get” standards, but are somehow spiritually gifted without even knowing it. They aren’t very perfect, but are very beautiful. Many are silent or forgotten, but cared for. They often have things wrong with them that may or may not be obvious to the rest of us. And as true “Givers”, they are naturally happy people. Love, for them, is not a choice. Thanksgiving is a true day of thanks for them, for they give and receive joy to all of us in simplicity and truth.

So the days of Thanksgiving are here. For some of us who wish to be better persons, what does it take to become righteous, loving, and truly thankful? The answers aren’t far away. Look for the ridiculed, silent, or suffering, yet cheerful. Look for the persons and families who have sacrificed everything for all of us. Look for those who live in other unfinished worlds, the patient, kind and cooperative. Read again the Sermon on the Mount, and the Love chapter of Paul. Find the reason for this season -- to seek and find the very least among us, the poor in spirit. They are here for a reason, and as Jesus implied, the reason is us, for “the works of God will be revealed in them.”