Thanks to nothing? (Archive post)

Originally published at Dean’s World, Thanksgiving 2006:

A million essays and blog posts will explore the topic of “being thankful” in the next 24 hours.

I’d say, based on a perusal of a Google search I just ran, that at least 80% of these pieces talk about “being thankful” with no reference whatsoever to Whom (or even whom) one should be thankful.

It is an utter logical dead end. You cannot, by definition, have “thanks” without an object of thanks. It is meaningless.

thank

TRANSITIVE VERB:
thanked , thank·ing , thanks

1. To express gratitude to; give thanks to: He thanked her for the gift.
2. To hold responsible; credit: We can thank the parade for this traffic jam.

You can’t have free-floating thanks. You can thank her for the gift, you can thank the parade for the traffic. You can’t just thank, however.

You can eat turkey. You can watch football. You get together with family and you can call it Thanksgiving. But that won’t make it thanksgiving.

Whom are you thanking this Thanksgiving?