On the Subject of Thanksgiving

2020-11-17

Thanksgiving is a Myth

Look. I’m just going to jump into the meat of it. Thanksgiving as popularly portrayed is a myth.⊕ Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong The holiday we now celebrate was created by Abraham Lincoln as a way to try to bring the recently-warring North and South together. And like, I can appreciate that for what it is. Or was. But also I’m kind of over it.

Let’s put a bird in the idea of a “traditional” Thanksgiving for a minute. I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb to say that for most people it’s about time with their family and / or food. Maybe football. Maybe a parade. Maybe the formal start of the Christmas season. Maybe something else entirely. I don’t think anyone is really thinking much about what it represents vis-a-vis the pilgrims and the original native inhabitants of the Americas.

If there’s anything that 2020 has taught us, I think, it’s that we can and should challenge our cherished beliefs. We get stuck in old ways of doing things even when newer and better ways come around. I know a lot of people that always wanted to work from home, whose company would never let them, who will probably never work in an office another day in their professional career. The world is different now, so why should something like Thanksgiving get a free pass?

The Essential Elements of an American Thanksgiving

When I think about what I want from Thanksgiving the thing that comes immediately to my mind is food. Back when I ate meat, it was the one time of the year that I had turkey, and I loved turkey. I loved turkey like old white men love racism. Now that I don’t eat meat, that’s the first thing on the list that I have to reconsider.

For other people Thanksgiving is about family. A chance to reconnect with those who’ve moved away or who are too busy or any number of other reasons why we don’t spend as much time with people as we may want. Or, in some cases, a chance to be forced to spend time with people we’d rather never see again. But let’s stick to the first idea. Time spent with those we love, whomever they may be.

There’s also the idea of thankfulness. Gratitude for what we have and are able to share with others. Whether or not that’s a part of your Thanksgiving tradition, let’s take the history of the holiday at face value and say that it’s an intended part of it.

Good food.
Good people.
Good intention.

Good Food

Look I’m not here to preach about vegetarian or vegan lifestyles. I mean. Maybe. But not like literally right here in this paragraph. You already know where you stand on that issue, and that’s not the problem I’m trying to solve today. But I’m going to make a loose argument of what I believe to be factual statements about the world and hopefully you’ll follow me on this journey.

Factory farming creates a lot of pollution.
Factory farming creates a lot of suffering.
Pollution and suffering are bad. We should try to minimize them.

That’s it. That’s the argument. Still there?

Okay, cool.

So the turkey’s right out. I’m sorry. I’m sad about it too. I really liked it. But I don’t like thinking that an animal had to suffer so that I could eat it. The ham too, if that was your jam.

So what does it mean to eat “good food” in this context? Okay, so this part’s a little less “factual statement” and a little more “my opinion,” but I hope you’ll stick around I mean. Who are we kidding? I know you’ll stick around. Nobody reads this who isn’t at least a little interested in what nonsense I’ll spout next. .

I think “good food” needs to have three essential qualities Seriously, what’s with the threes thing today? :

It should nourish the body.
It should nourish the planet.
It should nourish the community.

It’s plants. It should be plants. That result shouldn’t come as a surprise given where I started the section. But specifically, this is a great opportunity not just to buy plants but to buy plants that help support local, minority-owned, sustainable businesses. Buy plants from indigenous tribes. Buy plants from local farms. Buy plants from places where your purchase is going to make a real impact and not just where it’s going to put a buck into the pocket of a CEO.

Just for a few examples Three of them. :

This year I’m making a vegetarian “meat” loaf, with mushroom gravy, parker house rolls, cornbread stuffing, and some kind of dessert that I haven’t figured out yet. Good for the earth, good for me. Good food.

Good People

For many people Thanksgiving is about family. And for many people family is a four-letter word. My relationship with my family is complicated and fraught, so I sympathize with anyone that dreads Thanksgiving as a forced march back to the parents’ house and not something to be looked forward to.

Look, here’s the thing. When your parents decided to have a kid they created an obligation to clothe, feed, and raise you. You owe them nothing. If you got to the age of adulthood and all they did was the bare minimum to get you there then you don’t owe them for everything they did, you’re even. They paid their debt, they didn’t birth you into one It’s entirely possible your family went above and beyond, and did a lot more than the bare minimum for you. I don’t know you. I don’t know your life. All I’m saying is that the bare minimum requirements of providing for the raising of a child don’t create an eternal debt. They pay one. . So if you’re waiting for someone to give you permission to say you’re not coming home for Thanksgiving in 2020 or at any point in the future, here it is. You have my permission.

If our New Thanksgiving Tradition Patent still pending, all rights still reserved. is to be about giving thanks, then you should spend it with people you’re thankful for! Many of us who were raised Too Online are familiar with the concept of a found family, and this is the perfect time to reach out to them and invite them to join in your new tradition. The family you build is just as valid, just as valuable, and just as vital as the one you were born into.

Good Intention

This is the “thank” part in our new Thanksgiving. What are we thankful for? How do we bring thankfulness into the holiday?

When’s the last time you reached out to a friend and personally thanked them for something they did for you?

When’s the last time you wrote a note of appreciation?

When’s the last time you offered to cook a meal for a friend just because they’re a friend?

When we express gratitude for the things we have it helps us focus on what is good even amidst the bad. Nobody is going to vote 2020 “Most Popular.” Odds are nobody’s even going to sign its yearbook. 2020 is the kid in high-school that always smelled sort of vaguely like paste. But even amidst all of this there are things to be grateful for. Those things are probably deeply personal to you, and if you think you have nothing then I challenge you to think harder because things could always be worse If you’re reading this you’re probably in a warm home with access to the internet. If not you probably have a charged cell phone. If not some kind soul printed it out for you. It can always get worse. .

Thanksmas 2020

Okay, so let’s put it all together. What does out new Thanksgiving holiday look like?

It looks like eating food that nourishes us and the world around us, with the people we love, while being grateful for the things we have even amidst the horrors of the world collapsing around us. It’s a celebration of the good that doesn’t hide from the bad. Rather than ignore the atrocities done to indigenous people, we actively attempt to help support them. We gather in communities of common good and strive to be a better version of ourselves, together.

That’s something that I think we can all look forward to.