Giving Thanks

When did Thanksgiving become carb-loading for Black Friday? It’s as if all the worst parts of Christmas slithered their way into what should be a simple holiday of food and family. Black Friday deals start weeks before Friday. Cyber Monday deals start days before Monday. Thanksgiving even gets short-changed at places like Lowe’s and Home Depot, where the stupidity of Halloween decorations transitions into the glitzkrieg of Christmas decorations overnight, while Thanksgiving enjoys getting a few plastic cornucopias, smiling turkey napkins, and over-priced “Gather” signs that collect in the Clearance area.

Granted, most holidays in America seem like excuses to buy things we don’t need. And it’s not as if I reduce the complexity of our relationship to natives to the sharing of food between friends and joyous lessons in planting corn. But, damn, is there anything sacred in America? Sometimes it feels like football and war are about as sacred as we get.

I guess you have to carve out your own sacred. Like reading native poems on Thanksgiving. And giving thanks to the sun for rising. And celebrating the joy of your children growing into wild, beautiful, surprising people. Or pausing to marvel at the braid of your wife’s hair as you sit on the back porch, drink peppermint tea, talk interior castles, while night uncovers the jewels of the Milky Way that were always there, glistening.

-be cool and care