Is Thanksgiving a lie?

I write about the importance of gratitude this time each year, inspired by the Thanksgiving holiday. As Americans, we are taught from an early age about the friendly Indians who helped the Pilgrims survive the winter, and the grateful Pilgrims who shared their bountiful feast with them. It’s a story that is still taught today. But the truth about the Wampanoag people and the English who colonized their land is complex, dark, and ultimately tragic.

Right now, America is going through an honest examination of our history. We’re facing an uncomfortable realization than many of our most cherished parts of our history are just myths. The Thanksgiving story is one of them. Does that mean that the spirit of Thanksgiving is also a lie?

History is the story we tell about ourselves. Not only does it describe what happened to us, it tells us who we are and what we value. We do this with our personal histories as we do with our national one. I look back through my life to create a narrative about myself. Because of where I grew up and what I experienced, I develop certain beliefs about myself and the world that affect my actions. But what happens when we are confronted by something that challenges that outlook, like what happened to me in 2016? It can shatter our entire belief system. That’s why people would rather cling to wild conspiracy theories than face the truth.