I was looking up quotes today for my 5th grade class to use Wednesday night.  We will be making Thanksgiving cards to go in the baskets which will be delivered on Sunday, the 18th.  I found a couple of things that will probably work but what I really found were a number of quotes that made me think.

I always think of Thanksgiving as one of the two American holidays.  Fourth of July, of course, is this other.  I do realize that Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving but, according to all that I have read, their celebration is more in line with the harvest celebrations of Europe than with the New World.

The first quote I read was this:  "On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge our dependence."  Mr. Wm. Jennings Bryan, a noted orator and politician of the late 19th and early 20th century, said that.

He was right.  On Thanksgiving Day, we do acknowledge our dependence.  We acknowledge our dependence on God and give thanks for His mercy and blessings.

On the Fourth of July, we celebrate our independence from Britain.  We celebrate our freedoms, particularly the freedoms of speech and religion.  We celebrate the freedom to dream - and to achieve.

And, in a nutshell, there is the dichotomy of the U.S.  We just need to remember to put our dependence on God above our independence from everything else.