The scene is somewhere on Interstate 80 in the early 1980s, the day before Thanksgiving. Two young Englishmen are on a road trip to see the country and asked where they are going to spend the holiday. When informed we had no special plans, the waitress insisted that we must be with her family that day — no one should be alone on Thanksgiving for dinner. Of course, being young, male, English, and stupid (but I repeat myself severally), we traveled on. But I still want to express thanks to the woman (who is now probably a Nebraskan grandmother) for that great insight into your country and culture, as well as for her entirely serious and most kind offer to unknown travelers.

Thanksgiving will bring grinning images of politicians (some masked, some perhaps not) demonstrating as they serve up turkey and pie to the homeless. There will also be at those same soup kitchens and community halls, in houses across the nation, hundreds of millions taking part in one of the great human festivals of our time.