It’s Turkey Day! So, let me start by saying Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
Now, like almost all holidays that aren’t centered around a war, revolution, or good cause, there is always the debate of how to celebrate, should we celebrate, what can we change to make the celebration less offensive.
Reasonable debate? Sure, all debate is reasonable. A debate that is really going to change much? Something in me says not really.
Maybe it just my traditionalist nature in relation to celebrations talking, but I think you can celebrate the meaning behind a holiday without having to always draw back to the origins of it. Sure, the way we are taught about Thanksgiving is a Disney-ized version of the history. In today’s mind set and ethics, it was horrible what happened and the stat of something that is far from a gold mark in our history.
But does that mean that the reason we celebrate is just as tarnished? Seems like a black and white answer in a world seeped in shades of gray.
We live in a pretty selfish time, or at least is seems a lot more selfish than I remember. Thanksgiving is a day where we look back on the year, and, hopefully, for that brief twenty-four hour period, and reign in our selfish tendencies and acknowledge everyone and everything that keeps us going, striving to succeed, and supporting us through good and bad times.
In dishonorable acts, honorable intentions can always overcome.
This year has been a crazy one, and amongst that insanity, I have a tremendous amount to be thankful for:
- My family: They are a mainstay, but as there have been almost extreme highs an lows this year, I can’t help but be incredibly thankful they were there every step of the way.
- Old friends: Old connections reestablished, even if for just moments in the span of a year, but each one precious as they remind me of when I come from and how far I come since the first time we met. They are memories or past and portents of the future; islands of understanding that I always have frequent flyer miles to travel and find some piece of mind when needed.
- New friends: I have been lucky to meet a plethora of new people, who bring new ideas, new visions, and new experience into my life. From writers to ninja moms, they all have a spot in my life these days and I’m a so grateful for their friendship.
- Bellupino: She started as a friend for a good while, but it feels like we have been together for longer. Each day is filled with emotions I didn’t know one could feel and conversations that never want to end. There are even those moments of silence where we both know there aren’t words to express what we want to say. For her to be in my life I will be thankful, not just today, but everyday of my life.
So, as you are sitting, enjoying the cornucopia of a dinner and fighting of the trypophan, look around and see the people that are there with you and have been. Give them a spontaneous hug or a playful elbow to the side and a smile and let them know you are thankful that they are there.