Editorial November 20, 1976 Issue

Gratitude, Not Grievance

Peter J. Henniker-Heaton

Times Square, Trafalgar Square, Red Square, the Place de la Concorde, the Piazza San Marco. These famous squares have long focused the hopes, ideals, or history of the cities where they are found. Technology Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has an appropriately modern ring. But none is more timely than a square shortly to be completed in Dallas, Texas, and named Thanks-Giving Square.

In the chapel of this square individuals and groups will be welcomed to come and express, each in their own way, their gratitude to God by whatever name they call Him. And it is hoped to collect and focus here the Thanksgiving traditions of the world. So potent is gratitude, spiritually and scientifically understood, that, if every city possessed and fully used a Thanks-Giving Square of its own, many of today's pressing urban problems could soon be resolved.

When Christ Jesus said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth . . . ," his expression of gratitude was no social or religious convention; he followed it with the declaration, "All things are delivered to me of my Father."^{Luke 10:21, 22;} His expressions of gratitude to God were concerned not only with the past; they were often the prelude to mighty works of power, feeding the hungry multitude, restoring the dead to life.