“If I could be you and you could be me for just one hour
If we could find a way to get inside each other's mind
If you could see you through my eyes instead of your ego
I believe you'd be surprised to see that you'd been blind.
Walk a mile in my shoes…”
— Joe South

In this month of November, Joe could have been singing of that first Thanksgiving, where the settlers gave thanks for the American Indians saving the settlers' lives by sharing gifts, crops and knowledge.

One can see how critical was the sharing simply by noting the fatality rates of the original colonists who tried to conquer the new world using the skills and techniques they brought with them. Despite apparently superior weaponry, wealth and skills that had long proved successful in the old world, the wipeout all along the eastern seaboard was nearly total. Then, through contacts with the natives long since blurred into legend and myth, colonists learned to adapt in crucial areas such as effective shelter, planting or hunting. In effect, to walk a mile in the native's shoes was to turn a world that seemed deadly and foreboding into one of untold wealth and possibilities. Thanksgiving, indeed!