Good Morning, and Happy Thanksgiving to you!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I’ll tell you why. It isn’t about celebrating the ruin of culture and the seizure of land so that one person can claim ownership over something that belongs to all of us.
It isn’t about buying people gifts, and only being able to engage in the holiday if you have enough money. It isn’t about dressing up as something weird, because society shames you for doing that any other day of the year. It isn’t about a fantastical scavenger hunt, the origins of which don’t particularly align with the origin of that holiday.
It’s about being grateful and thankful. It’s about appreciating what you have, and not asking for or expecting any more. It’s about sharing time with friends and family, the only resource that truly matters to us as human beings, with the people who matter most to us. That’s why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.
As a kid, it was one of the only times that I would see all of my family in one place at one time, aside from weddings and funerals, during which there was still lots of gifts, and/or lots of expectations. On Thanksgiving, the only expectation is that people share their time. Of course, many have come to expect a turkey, but even that isn’t the centerpiece of the day for me.
We’d stay up late with aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, playing cards and being jovial. It’s joy, all day long. Except for my poor mother, who gives the most of her time of anyone on the day to ensure that everyone else has the day that she envisions, and she has never once slipped, faltered, or even come close to failure.
Nowadays, the family has moved and spread out a bit from one another, which makes me sad. I don’t know why the expectation of society is that we move away from our parents and our families. To start a life of our own? We’re human beings, we need some degree of social connection, and it doesn’t make much sense to me to abandon the greatest source we have, that which granted us life. Can we not share our life with those we love most? Why is that not the norm any longer? I do not know.
We still play games, although for the past several years we’ve been playing boardgames and all other manner of tabletop games. I think my father is preparing a Dungeon Crawl Classic tabletop role-playing game for this year, and I know many other games will hit the table during the hours we share.
Food, one of our basic human needs, is provided upon the day, and many attendees will bring something to contribute. No one expects it, but we do it, because we share an understanding that we must eat, drink, and have shelter, all of which is provided for us, at least this one day of the year.
My family, some of us at least, my dear mother stays in the kitchen preparing, though she relishes the time she has to work alone before the commotion begins. My family goes on a hike, first thing in the morning, in the woods above my parent’s home. We have done this for years, and at this point it feels almost like a ritual, a pilgrimage, a fitting way to start a day of thanks before relatives arrive to share in the celebration.
It’s a community gathering, of a small, closely-knit, intimate community. A group of people who matter most, and for whom we are most thankful. I understand not celebrating certain other holidays every day of the year. If we celebrated December’s notorious holiday, we’d all be broke after a month, and many would grow tired of those festivities as they witnessed the constant effects of our greed. I don’t believe that would happen if we celebrated Thanksgiving every day. I think perhaps people would realize that this is how life should be, and not as it is currently in their day to day life.
It’s almost tribal, primal, and perhaps that is why I connect with it so strongly. It’s something we’re supposed to do, that aligns with the goals of human nature, and nature as a whole. The preservation of life, of earth, the joining together of community and family, and the celebration of all that we have, and are grateful and thankful for. It is, as it should be, at least one day of the year.
It’s immediately destroyed by the greed and consumerism that follows in preparation for December’s holiday, which I will not name until December comes. Yes, I’m “one of those people” who prefer to allow at least of month of gratitude and thankfulness before society falls victim to rampant consumerism. It does not take a year of labor to afford a Thanksgiving, but it does to afford December’s holiday.
Even if you and your family have fallen out, and disconnected, you may celebrate a “Friendsgiving” although the name doesn’t need to be so. You are still thankful for what connections you do have, and for those you are able to celebrate with. The essence of the holiday does not change. Gratitude and thankfulness may present themselves in different ways to all of us.
Thus, allow yourself the moment of respite that society has deemed acceptable at this time, because you are not allowed to the rest of the year. Embrace the grateful nature of the Thanksgiving holiday. Take stock of all that you have, and ask yourself if you really need more to be happy, or if perhaps sharing what you have with those you care about might yield more for your spirit than anything else could.
Be grateful.
Be thankful.
Be joyous.
Be compassionate.
This is why Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and in no contest, the best holiday. It asks nothing more of us, than we simply be as humans should be to one another, and to ourselves.
I am thankful for many things, which include you, whoever you are, friend, family, acquaintance, stranger, and even myself, for reading this that I have written. I am thankful that you exist, and that you are alive, and that for at least one day you possess your time to live, which we all have and can share, enjoy, and be thankful for, with one another.
Happy Thanksgiving!
