Thanksgiving Holiday – Don’t Drink the Water

I really want to like Thanksgiving, but as I have grown older, I am having more and more of a problem with this every year. Tomorrow’s feast promises to be extravagant as far as food goes and satisfying as far as friends and family go. My brother arrived yesterday, and as I type this post he is baking pumpkin bread, the smell of which brings back good holiday memories. I think those memories mostly center around being off of school. Tonight a friend from North Carolina arrives and tomorrow friends from Virginia arrive – all transplants from our beloved Louisiana. Aquarius has dubbed the fete “Turkeyocalypse 2009″ and one guest is even having t-shirts made that depict the Swedish Chef running after a helpless turkey. I’m not sure, but it may be a southern thing to make t-shirts for events such as family reunions and the like.

I have everything to be thankful for and no personal reason to dislike this American holiday, but days like today remind me of the distaste the holidays can sometimes leave in my mouth. The last minute rush on holiday items at the grocery store, the traffic incessantly honking, the cut-throat fight for parking spaces, the hurried selfish attitude: all of these things make me wonder why the holidays have to be so complicated. Today is only the beginning. Christmas is one month away, and the “Christmas Spirit” is one thing that I loath. It oozes capitalistic greed. But one holiday at a time. I will enjoy tomorrow because of the good food and my wonderful group of uncomplicated friends, but I will not enjoy it without a bit of sadness in the back of my mind. I know this holiday is supposed to remind us of the cooperation between the Puritans and the Indians, but it commemorates the beginning of the annihilation of a race of people. When I was in elementary school I was happy to make construction paper feathers to put in my construction paper Indian Princess headdress, but I never thought to ask what happened to the Native Americans. I wonder how that class discussion would have gone.

As I left Whole Foods today, I thought how ironic it is that the very place I bought my organic, local, fresh turkey most likely used to be home to American Indians. Why did we need their land? So that we could build shopping malls and fight each other tooth and nail for the 4 am doorbuster deals at Best Buy the day after we stuff ourselves with food out of gratitude for them having shown us how to plow?

Enjoy Dave’s lyrics on the subject. The video quality is not great, but it was the best version I could find that included “This Land is Your Land.”