Thanksgiving is 3 days away.
November 26, this year. The most magnificent holiday of them all.
Christmas is bullshit. It is hard work, it is expensive, it is stressful, it has become perverted into crass commercial orgasm overload.
Jesus Christ - I saw my first fucking Christmas commercial in early October.
How absolutely disgusting.
A large segment of our population spends more money than they can afford on presents nobody needs because they have been brainwashed into believing that this is what this holiday is about. And they are too stupid to question the wisdom of this madness.
They stagger around malls like sheep, lured into shops and stalls by lying, thieving merchants who mask their greed with green and red tinsel, blinking lights and "Happy Holidays" on their lips.
Like they care about your holiday. They care only about your wallet.
What the hell happened to the birth of Christ? Or if you do not care to be religious, what the hell happened to peace on earth and good will towards man?
New Year's Eve is amateur hour. Inexperienced drinkers getting hammered and wearing stupid hats on their heads, blowing on horns and breathing stench into your conversation and throwing up on their cats on January 1.
New Year's Day is melancholy. Most of us wishing with all our hearts and all our souls and all of our being that our lives will improve in the new year. And simultaneously knowing deep down that this is as good as our lives will get and no new year is going to change a goddamn thing.
Sorry. Getting pretty heavy in here. Let's perk things up.
Thanksgiving is pure. It is a family gathering to chow down on a home cooked yet extravagant meal, to watch football, to talk, to laugh, to revel in each other's company no strings attached. To drift in and out of alertness, sometimes dozing on a couch or a recliner or an overstuffed chair, maybe dreaming and then slipping right back in to honesty and love and respect.
A slow moving, natural, peaceful day of family comfort.
So don't let it blow by. Don't let it escape your attention.
Focus. Look around. Dig the smiles on the faces of those that you love. Feel the peace, the release from work, the natural beauty of a day set aside to give thanks. Give thanks, if only in your mind, for the company of those that you love and those that love you.
That being said, I will close with a poem Carol gave to me, printed in the Concord Monitor, that blew me away. Because it forced me to think about something I have not previously thought about. Age related. Nevertheless, it is something that could become a reality in the life that Carol and I share, as much as we would hate for that to be true.
Written by Marge Saiser.
"Thanksgiving For Two"
"The adults we call our children will not be arriving with their children in tow for Thanksgiving. We must make our feast ourselves, slice our half-ham, indulge, fill our plates, potatoes and green beans carried to our table near the window.
We are the feast, plenty of years, arguments. I'm thinking the whole bundle of it rolls out like a white tablecloth. We wanted to be good company for one another. Little did we know that first picnic how this would go.
Your hair was thick, mine long and easy; we climbed a bluff to look over a storybook plain. We chose our spot as high as we could, to see the river and the checkerboard fields.
What we didn't see was this day, in our pajamas if we want to, wrinkled hands strong, wine in juice glasses, toasting whatever's next, the decades of side by side, our great good luck."
Happy Thanksgiving to you.
I hope it is a truly peaceful and fulfilling day. I hope the love and trust and comfort you experience brings you exploding alive and opens your eyes to the sweet beauty that is available to you in your magnificent family.
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