Good summary by Daniel.
I don’t know if Alexander Solzhenitsyn ever celebrated Thanksgiving (he did live in the US for a while), but this excerpt from “Gulag Archipelago” seems appropriate:
“It is enough if you don’t freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don’t claw at your insides. If your back isn’t broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes see, and if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy for others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart — and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it might be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted in their memory!”
Hopefully we don’t have to worry about arrest . . . yet . . .