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Thanks a lot, Norman Rockwell
Famous painting sparks unrealistic expectations
Courtesy Library of Congress
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
Published: 11/22/2009 2:19 AM
Last Modified: 11/22/2009 4:25 AM
It's a picture just about every American has seen at some point over the last 66 years: A long table, nine people of varying ages crowded eagerly and happily up to it, leaning forward in anticipation so intense that the smiles on their faces look almost painful, as an older woman lowers a platter bearing a huge roast turkey.
Behind her, his Bible-black suit in stark contrast to all the white and light in the room, is an elderly gentleman smiling benignly on the woman's effort.
You can envision it now, can't you? You don't even need to see it.
It's the Norman Rockwell painting commonly known as "Thanksgiving Day," but that's a name that became affixed to it over the years.
In reality, this image of Grandma lugging a heaping helping of roast fowl to the dinner table is titled "Freedom from Want."
And it has haunted the American Thanksgiving pretty much since it first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on March 6, 1943.
"Freedom from Want" was part of a series of paintings Rockwell spent six months creating in response to Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union address.
Roosevelt spoke of "four essential human freedoms" that governments should work to secure for all people: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear and freedom from want.
In his autobiography, Rockwell said he was never pleased with the two paintings that illustrated the ideas of fear and want.
"Neither of them has any wallop," Rockwell said. And with most families of the day having to deal with wartime rationing, he was concerned that people might find his portrayal of abundance in poor taste.
But "Freedom from Want" has had a whole lot of wallop for more than half a century. It has become the iconic image of Thanksgiving — endlessly reprinted, reinterpreted, parodied and satirized.
It has also, in some ways, ruined Thanksgiving for a lot of people.
All those smiling, eager, seemingly happy people, down to the guy in the lower right corner who looks directly at the viewer with an expression that — depending on one's mood — says either, "Come on, pull up a chair and sit down with us," or "Look what we have that you don't."
Want this freedom?
"I lead a women's group where we talk about things that are causing difficulties and stresses in their lives," said Allison Burton, a licensed clinical social worker with Family and Children's Services, "and this topic — that Norman Rockwell painting — has already come up.
"One of the most common causes of stress, especially during the holidays, is comparing yourself to what you think is perfect and falling short."
Equally damaging is the feeling that one is excluded from such happy celebrations as Rockwell predicts — those who see the expression of the man in the lower right as less than welcoming.
"Thanksgiving is so often portrayed as a time of families and friends coming together," Burton said. "For people who don't have such close ties to others, it just makes them feel even more alone. They don't have anyone to spend this time with."
Burton sees a third cause for emotional stress — one that may be unique to the Thanksgiving holiday.
"Honestly, I think the real crisis for most people is knowing that at some point they are going to have to deal with people they know or are related to — and that they just can't stand," she said. "They don't know how they will be able to maintain their composure when they know they are going to have to spend time with 'THAT person.' "
Playing happy families
Of course, strife around the Thanksgiving table isn't something spawned in this age of divorce and not well-blended families.
Your humble correspondent has spent a few Thanksgiving Days in which the atmosphere was less than convivial. Fortunately, no fights broke out.
But even what we think of as "the first Thanksgiving" had to be a relatively somber and tense affair. In that first year in the New World, nearly half the 102 people who had made the voyage aboard the Mayflower died.
And the natives of the region, the Wampanoag Indians, were not pleased with the arrival of Pilgrims; supposedly a few arrows were shot in the settlers' general direction upon their reaching shore.
But once the harvest was in, the Pilgrims — who were devoutly religious — wished to express their thanks to God for the blessings they had received. And they did so with a feast of thanksgiving.
Thanks a lot
In her book "The Gift of Thanks," the English writer and scholar Margaret Visser examines all the permutations of, and all the consequences that may arise from, the simple phrase. "Thank you."
The U.S. tradition of Thanksgiving rates only two cursory mentions in Visser's book — not so surprisingly, given that it is a densely packed, scholarly work by a British writer now living in Canada.
But one of those mentions deals with the roots of the word "gratitude," and how this word in English is always a noun, where as in other languages, variants of the Latin root word "gratia" described actions.
"It was our Germanic roots that supplied English with the verb 'to thank,' " Visser writes.
"In religious terminology, there remains the phrase 'accion de gracias' [which] means all the actions that add up to a human demonstration of gratefulness to God.
"The modern North American festival called Thanksgiving refers to all the actions, the things eaten, given and shared, as well as the thoughts and words that make up this ritual celebration. Thanks are plural."
And maybe that's our problem — we put too much emphasis on this one day, this one meal, this symbol of whatever sort of gratitude we might think necessary to express.
No wonder we tend to freak out when the slightest little thing goes wrong with the turkey or the dressing or the seating arrangements, when Uncle Phil starts talking politics or Cousin Debbie brings up religion.
Maybe we shouldn't save up our thanksgivings for just one day in November.
After all, as Visser writes, gratitude "contributes to the spiritual well-being of every person, but especially those who are thankful."
And who wants to feel well only one day out of the year?Even the guy who painted it didn't think it's all that great.
James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com
By JAMES D. WATTS JR. World Scene Writer
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