831-"An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving" by Louisa May Alcott
Radical Personal Finance
Joshua J. Sheats, MSFS, CFP, CLU, ChFC, CASL, RHU, REBC, CAP
4.2 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 24 November 2021
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, in celebration of the American holiday "Thanksgiving Day," I want to share with you a recording of short story written by Louisa May Alcott, called "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving."
The audio file has no commentary—it's merely an unabridged reading of the story—and is suitable for you to share with your children as a worthwhile story to enjoy this time of year.
But this story is filled with financial lessons for those with ears to hear.
As you listen to a life of long ago (circa 1830), I'd encourage you to reflect on the life that you and I now live in comparison.
For me, this reflection fills me with Thanksgiving, which is the starting point of living a rich life now.
You are rich. I am rich. Let's realize it and act appropriately.
Joshua
- If you prefer to read the story to your children yourself, here is the text I read: https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/alcott/thanksgiving/thanksgiving.html
Here are a few poem and prayers of Thanksgiving you may enjoy as well:
O Lord, that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!
~~William Shakespeare 1564-1616
May all who share these gifts today
Be blessed by Thee, we humbly pray.
What God gives and what we take
'Tis a gift for Christ his sake;
Be the meal of beans or peas,
God be thanked for those and these;
Have we flesh or have we fish,
All are fragments from His dish.
~~Robert Herrick 1591-1674
Prayer
Lord, behold our family here assembled. We thank thee for this place in which we dwell, for the love that unites us, for the peace accorded to us this day, for the health, for the food, and the bright skies that make our lives delightful, for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Give us courage, gaiety, and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends, soften us to our enemies. Bless us, if may be, in all our innocent endeavours. If may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come. May we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune loyal and loving to one another.
As the clay to the potter, as the windmill to the wind, as the children of their sire, we beseech of Thee this help and mercy for Christ's sake. Amen.
~~Robert Louis Stevenson
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ant Jo's scrap bag, an old-fashioned Thanksgiving by Luisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, |
| 0:08.0 | an old-fashioned girl, Little Men, hospital sketches, 1882. |
| 0:16.0 | Ant Jo's scrap bag, an old-fashioned Thanksgiving. |
| 0:20.0 | Sixty years ago, up among the New Hampshire Hills, lived farmer-basset with a house full |
| 0:25.7 | of sturdy sons and daughters growing up about him. They were poor in money, but rich in land and |
| 0:33.4 | love. For the wide acres of wood, corn, and pasture land, fed, warmed, and clothed the flock, |
| 0:42.3 | while mutual patience, affection, and courage made the old farmhouse a very happy home. |
| 0:48.6 | November had come. The crops were in, and barn, buttery, and bin were overflowing with the harvest |
| 0:54.5 | that rewarded the summer's hard work. The big kitchen was a jolly place just now, |
| 0:59.3 | for in the great fireplace roared a cheerful fire. On the walls hung garlands of dried apples, |
| 1:05.6 | onions, and corn. Up, aloft from the beams, shone crook-necked squashes, juicy hams, |
| 1:12.4 | and dried venison. For in those days, deer still haunted the deep forests, and hunters flourished. |
| 1:19.2 | Savory smells were in the air. On the crane hung steaming kettles, |
| 1:24.6 | and down among the red embers, copper sauce pans simmered, all suggestive of some approaching feast. |
| 1:32.4 | A white-headed baby lay in the old blue cradle that had rocked seven other babies, |
| 1:37.2 | now and then lifting his head to look out, like a round full moon, then subsided to kick and |
| 1:43.6 | crow contentedly, and suck the rosy apple he had no teeth to bite. Two small boys sat on the |
| 1:50.5 | wooden settle, shelling corn for popping, and picking out the biggest nuts from the goodly store |
| 1:56.1 | of their own hands had gathered in October. Four young girls stood at the long dresser, |
| 2:01.6 | busily chopping meat, pounding spice, and slicing apples, and the tongues of tilly, |
| 2:07.2 | pru, roxy, and rowdy went as fast as their hands. Farmer Bassett and F, the oldest boy, |
| 2:15.1 | were chore and round outside, for thanksgiving was at hand, and all must be in order for that |
... |
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