Thankful For and Thankful To

Last week in the U.S., we celebrated Thanksgiving—a time designated for giving thanks for all the good things in our lives. Now, if we stop and think, we can probably come up with plenty of things to be thankful for. But what I’m curious about is this: Do we go beyond identifying what we’re thankful for, and also identify who we’re thankful to?

The holiday is called Thanks_giving_, and giving something entails a recipient. It’s easy enough to have positive feelings for the good things we’ve experienced. But do we ever clarify in our own minds exactly who we should be directing our thanks to? Because feeling thankful _for something_ is not the same as expressing thanks _to someone_.