A day to give thanks, like it or not 

Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year. It's easy to see why. Thanksgiving is among the most nondenominational of America's holidays. Everyone can participate — and 91% of us do, according to the Pew Research Center.

Perhaps the universality of this day we like to spend with family and friends is rooted in the reality that we all need each other and in the fact that it celebrates that elemental act of giving thanks.

Everything about the holiday is communal — from its 400-year-old roots to the often-big table we gather around to enjoy the centerpiece of the day, the feast of food, and to — yes — give thanks.

This year's commemoration comes at a time that belies the holiday's essence of bringing people together. We recently completed our national election, which showed yet again how divided we are politically and, sadly, in other ways as well. While half the nation is indeed in a celebratory mood, we must recognize that the other half might not be in a mood for giving thanks to their neighbors. Frankly, they are nervous about what lies ahead. Some are fearful of the consequences of a huge wave of deportations. Some worry about our freedoms being curtailed. Some are scared that our warming climate is going to run amok.

Balanced against that are those who are thankful that their candidate won, because he was the one who promised to fix what they believe is wrong about our country and our place in the world, and because he spoke to their dissatisfaction that our numerous challenges have not been met.

This hair's edge of tension is reflected in the new Pew Research Center survey, which found that only a small subset of Americans expect to discuss politics this Thanksgiving. But the split is enlightening. Where 36% of people who voted for the winner, former President Donald Trump, said it's extremely or very likely they'll talk about the election, only 24% of Vice President Kamala Harris' voters said the same. Emotions, in other words, remain raw.

And yet, lodged in the numbers of that same survey is hope for the kind of shared experience to which we all have grown accustomed: Nearly 70% of American adults say that someone at their Thanksgiving dinner enumerates the things for which they all are thankful.

Some things on such a list do derive from our politics. We can be thankful that most of our country peacefully accepts the results of elections, even when things don't go their way. And we can be thankful that our political system does have guardrails built into it to protect us from the worst impulses of our leaders no matter who they are, guardrails that hopefully will continue to hold.

That's in addition to the more traditional topics of thanks that remain dear and essential. We can be thankful for the neighborhoods and the community ties we have, the bonds that have always helped us get through difficult times. We can be thankful for all the people of good faith and good will whom we know and who enrich our lives. We can be thankful for the bounty of resources so many of us enjoy in this country and on Long Island not only on this holiday but on every day of every year.

And we can be thankful that we have such a day as this, a day to remind us of all the good in our lives and to spark us to gather with those we love to share in that.