Thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings.

Moskin frames Thanksgiving not as a narrowly American civic ritual but as an ancient, cross-cultural human impulse: pausing after hardship or harvest to acknowledge dependence on forces beyond oneself—nature, community, providence, or sheer luck. The phrase “prehistoric dimness” suggests that gratitude predates written tradition and formal theology, while “universal to all ages and all faiths” argues for its shared, humanizing function. The second sentence shifts from history to personal ethics: even when circumstances are precarious (“whatever straws we must grasp”), gratitude remains possible and can serve as a psychological reset—an opening toward “new beginnings” rather than resignation.