Thanksgiving

It is hard to believe, but Thanksgiving is just around the corner. The one day of the year dedicated to eating, football, and watching TV specials. The one day of the year that you don't have to feel bad about eating seconds of everything and then falling asleep at 4 in the afternoon. The one day of the year that doesn't require anything of anybody except that they be hungry and lazy. What a magical day.

I know, that as we've become a more progressive society, Thanksgiving has gotten a bad rap. A lot of people want to be able to focus on the non-Hallmark, non-commercial origins of the holidays. They want to celebrate the "true meaning" of whatever holiday is approaching. And they are, understandably, upset that when they research the actual origins of Thanksgiving it turns out that the Pilgrims and the Indians didn't exactly get together to eat turkey. People are really bothered that we have a holiday celebrating events that never actually occurred how we say they did.

But here's the thing. Probably it was wrong for the government and the greeting card people and Butterball to all get together and decide to change the story around a little bit in exchange for a couple days off of work and a whole lot of extra money this time of year. But at least they made up a holiday all about being grateful for our family and our friends and having food on the table. Think about it. They could have told some story where the Pilgrims brought the Indians gifts in exchange for their help and so now we all have to buy each other presents on Thanksgiving to show how thankful we are. But that's not how it happened. We all get together and share a meal to show how much we appreciate our time together. What other holiday is there where the only tradition is to give thanks?

So in the spirit of the holiday, I say we all agree that the true meaning of Thanksgiving has nothing to do with Pilgrims and Indians. We should just let go of that controversy all together. I say that the true meaning of Thanksgiving is that a bunch of higher ups got together and said, "Let's all take a few days off work, eat a lot of tasty food, and spend some time with our families." And in honor of that decision, we give thanks for the priceless things we have on this holiday, like time and sleep and a good meal, that we might not have otherwise. I don't think anybody will have a problem celebrating that.

I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving and I hope to see you all on December 2nd at Festival of Lights!