Saying grace

(Children’s Defense Fund) – During the Thanksgiving season I often share the description of an editorial cartoon my father kept pinned up in the vestibule of our church that made a deep childhood impression on me I have never forgotten. It was a black and white drawing by the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Herblock that was originally published in The Washington Post in October 1947. The picture showed a group of well-dressed, happy people, sitting at a banquet table overflowing with place settings, goblets, and so much food the table cannot hold any more: a roast, gravy boats, bread and butter, covered dishes, heaping platters of sides. Hovering behind them and filling the rest of the image is a crowd of gaunt, wide-eyed hungry children dressed in rags. There are too many of these skeletal figures to count; the starving masses go on and on into the distance. Back at the table, one of the dinner guests is speaking cheerfully to his smiling companions. The caption reads, “Shall we say grace?”In some houses Thanksgiving dinner will look a little like that cartoon, with tables overflowing with favorite foods as family and friends crowd around them to give thanks and say grace....