Past the Plate 11/21/2021

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

A beloved American holiday is upon us.  When this blog publishes we will have mere days until we embark on the celebration that makes a seemingly random Thursday the stuff of which memories are made.  I have talked about this holiday ad nauseum I am certain. It really does have plenty that provides appropriate blog fodder (and I assure you I don’t mean that term to sound as unappealing as it sounded).  And yes, I do plan on talking about it again here but I am hoping that I can take a new approach to the day.  Today I am going to tell you (maybe briefly, maybe not briefly considering every time in this blog I have attempted brevity I have to go back and delete where I mentioned it due to failing miserably at it) about all the things that I do not like about Thanksgiving. Now, don’t go getting your knickers in a twist. I do love the holiday.  I think it is a wonderful observance so hear me out.  As I am often saying, I am going somewhere with this. Hopefully I am anyway. It usually turns out that I have a point right?  I mean I suppose only you the reader can answer that.  In my own mind I do alright but, by all means, let’s not all travel that road.

I do not like that at Thanksgiving we tend to focus almost entirely on food. Trust me it pained me more than you can possibly know to write such a thing.  My heart and my stomach are probably detrimentally intertwined so to say this could be a negative thing was a blow to my innermost being.  I wish it weren’t true but we really do often think of this day as an excuse to practice gluttony to the fullest extent of the human disposition.  I say this wholeheartedly guilty.  I am ashamed to say it but in a not so distant Thanksgiving past I actually ate myself to the point of concern for my physical well-being. And please note, I am not talking about a “oh my I am so full I just need a nap” type of scenario here. Nay my good reader, I am talking about that I fear that my insides my very well become my outsides with a side of a genuine fear that it was going to be the last holiday I ever celebrated. I know. That is terrible. I know it. There are people that are starving and struggling to have any sort of meal much less to try to murder themselves with food.  I was literally ashamed, I exaggerate not.  I mean for obvious reasons I ruined my holiday. It should have been a joyous experience of pleasurable eating and the company of family but it was spent praying that I would recover from my own stupidity. I do not recommend this path.  Over indulgence might be ok, but to go to the level that I took things, just please don’t.  Nobody wins.  And you may have picked up on this, but I may very well be administering a forewarning to myself right now.  I had better have my self-control act together. But, beyond the sad and rather ridiculous example I just related, I fear we simply think of this as a day that we have a delicious meal. And yes, we do and that is well and good, no downright wonderful really. But, the day does have a name and it is not “Eatingday”.  I feel like I am probably one of the guiltiest for that. To you my reader and to society in general, I make my formal apology for that.  I do love food, probably too much I admit. But there is infinitely much for which I should be thankful.

I have mentioned in a previous blog that our view of the original Thanksgiving is terribly skewed. I daresay there is probably a large portion of our history that is. Such is the nature of history; it bends to the slant of the writers of the history books.  We have forgotten the less savory aspects of what the first celebration meant. The natives where the pilgrims arrived were almost wholly responsible for these people’s survival.  Their alliance is a thing of beauty and it is glossed over as a friendly meal.  There is so much more we thoroughly overlook.  This is one of the sole examples that we have of a positive relationship between European settlers and Native Americans.  I can understand why we gloss over this point.  I am of 99% European ancestry. My remaining 1% is Native American.  I know those percentages lean heavily one way but I desperately want to see what every last percentage would have me see.  When we are all gathered with family and friends which are usually people we hold dear, (and yes, I know there are exceptions but that is a blog for another day), perhaps we need to consider those outside our scope.  Maybe we should consider if there are any of which we have taken advantage. I can almost guarantee that at the very least there are those that deserve our thanks, gratitude, honor and respect and the actions of that first holiday (though they didn’t call it as much) should sever as a reminder. We should look beyond friends and family around a prodigious table.  Much like the comradeship forgotten far too quickly after 1621 we need to allow our esteem to travel outside the comfort zones of kitchens and dining rooms. I say this to myself more than anyone.  I need to build beyond my home and family.  I need to leave a legacy that will not soon be forgotten or glossed over in the annals of my historical account.

And again, I have failed at brevity.  I should have known.  I am just not good at it.  I hope you have a glorious Thanksgiving.  If you are not American and/or do not celebrate it, I recommend you give it a go.  By all means, enjoy a special meal.  Partake of foods you do not usually have on hand. But let me close in saying this, to myself most of all, there is meaning to be found if we are willing to put in the effort (and self-control) to look beyond our fork.