It’s the day before Thanksgiving, a time to remember what’s important and to love, and here I sit listening to NPR talk about the new Thanksgiving. A time of year when Americans now think about the discounted iPad they can get if they just trample over people in line. A holiday season where family and love is forgotten and materialism and greed has taken over.
The show was focusing on how Black Friday, a day of frenzied shopping responsible for deaths in recent years, is now no longer just the day after Thanksgiving, but has crept into dining rooms all over the country leaving them empty at Thanksgiving dinner. Over the past several years more and more shoppers – and don’t forget retail workers that have to leave family to be there – are spending Thanksgiving day in line in front of shopping malls, sleeping in store parking lots and declaring war on their fellow man in the name of Samsung.
It makes my heart hurt.
Since I was a child Thanksgiving was always a time to remember and show love.
We remember and bring to life the food and culture of our family through old recipes.
We remember that, though we still see happy “pilgrims and indians” on the holiday decorations in schools and stores, the true history of that time and those relationships is vastly different than portrayed. We remember and send love to that pain.
We remind ourselves to live gratitude, all year long, for every blessing we have in our lives.
We remember our family and loved ones. We get together with those we can, call or send our love to those we can’t.
We remind ourselves to send love to the suffering and gratitude to those who have provided for us.
We reminisce on holiday memories and make new ones.
This is what this holiday has meant to me for so long. No matter what it means for you, I hope we can all remember the bigger point of this time of year. I hope we can reflect on how we treat each other, what we value in life and how we live on this planet. I hope we can learn to respect, love and give thanks to the Earth, her bounty and each other.
These are my hopes and I am just putting them out there for something to chew on at your dinner table tomorrow. And don’t forget to thank the farmers! 🙂
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