Wisdom from an Imaginary Table 11/22/2020

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

This blog is proving more difficult to write than originally anticipated. I had thought to myself that writing a blog extolling the joys of Thanksgiving, since we are to that week of the year, would be a tad on the effortless side. However, the ebb and flow of tides in the bilge water ocean that is this year are attempting to stifle my attempts to wax poetic about the upcoming holiday.  I think we all know of the “if it’s not one thing, it’s another” concept that has proven to be every second and second following of times these days.  When you want to write about all that is positive about an upcoming event and anything that can go wrong does in addition to new things popping up to just go wrong with the element of off-putting surprise thrown in, positivity becomes more taxing that one would like it to be. I am, as I type, attempting to scrape forth all the determination that I can muster however, I REFUSE to allow this world full of chaos and adversity in all its forms get its grimy talons too deeply into my soul. I will not allow it. No. If nothing else I will hold on to all that is glorious and good about the coming day and I will do my best to fight the madness with all inclination to find nothing but linings of polished sterling on every cloud despite its dark foreboding nature.  I don’t care if there is even thunder, lightning and torrential rain to boot. Storms end no matter how much their frightful cacophony tries to convince otherwise.  Now, join me while I laud the coming occasion.

Really, this holiday should be high on our list of having everything that makes a holiday the exceptional occasion that it truly is. Other than what money is spent on groceries to prepare lavish meals, this day is basically free of all the commercialism that tends to plague a large number of our holidays.  The pressure of gifts and décor is for the most part, quite simply not there.  And on this day more than possibly any other day, we are to focus on virtue and values that, while often are meant to be the focus of other holidays, are very frequently lost in the mask of money and things.  This day is all about celebrating gratefulness.  I know it was founded on some somewhat cloudy historical ideologies.  I think we all know historical tales, especially from that far back, tend to get a bit skewed by the teller very often. However, even if the idea of a giant table in the midst of a poor new colony graced with pilgrim and native in all their fineries is not really the factual moment from centuries ago there are some ideas from that image that we would all benefit from clinging to. Perhaps we need to take this idyllic image and start to plan our day from there. Let me explain.

Take a look at that classic Thanksgiving visual, even if it is imaginary (as it likely is), of the bountiful meal with Native and Pilgrim attendance.  What can we really glean from it? Let us start with the most basic premise and that is of two different peoples with two different ideologies and ways of life, having a moment of cooperative, dare I say even collaborative harmony with one another. Well if that isn’t something we could all take a few staunch lessons from these days I don’t know what is! These days if we can find anything to divide ourselves we unfortunately jump on said aspect like the proverbial chicken on a June bug.  (For those unfamiliar with that southernism change the chicken to any hungry animal with which you are familiar and the June bug to any food that said hungry animal enjoys.)  Clearly these two groups don’t necessarily live happily ever after with lives filled with recipe sharing and group hunting trips, but we see they can get together and celebrate things that are mutually important to them. In this case it is a successful harvest they are commemorating which, if we get right down to it, I would say the grand majority of us thankfully (pun intended) can be grateful for this year. Even if we do not have turkey, sweet potatoes and multicolored corn gracing our tables we are likely not going hungry. We live in a land of plenty where most of us will never know the fear of life and death teetering squarely on the outcome of our agricultural toil. So in the clearest of messages we have two vastly different groups coming together to value what matters. Fictional event be darned, we need to all make a mental note and accent it with our brightest mental highlighter.

There are even helpful messages that can come from those sitting around that beautiful table in our lovely picture, besides the fact that food stylists were clearly more important than we all realized in the 1621 of course. The Natives are prime examples of the stewards we should be to our homelands. They lived off the land without abusing it and valued the sustenance that it gave them. We tend to not attempt to live off the land but profit from it, often taking more than we should and attempting to milk more out of our resources than we ought.  We don’t even have to look at it solely in the natural sense. Stewardship of anything is taking care of it, not squeezing whatever benefit out of it you can.  The Pilgrims have lessons as well. They traveled to a completely foreign land for the sake of freedom.  We tend to value comfort and complacency so much these days that it often comes at the price of our principles.  Perhaps it’s time we got back to the idea that sometimes struggling for what is right and good may often be a difficult fight but is always worth it in the end.

So, whilst you are eating whatever you choose to dine upon this coming Thursday, keep in your head that pretty picture you saw in grade school of black hats and buckles at the table with feathers and buckskin.  No, it may not be steeped in historical fact but it is a virtual cornucopia (pun intended again) of ideas to let really sink down deep into our thoughts these days.  This became a national holiday while this was a war torn country. Perhaps we aren’t at war now, but then again maybe we are.  Maybe we are in the midst of a war with fear and chaos that is battling us to try and take from us all that this holiday should mean.  I say we take this day back. I say we tear victory from the jaws of defeat and say that this year, maybe more than any other year, that we will love each other and be truly thankful no matter the trials swirling around us. This year, let true Thanksgiving be our battle cry.