ThankFool

Food..
Family..

Some of the essential F's to have in life

Thanksgiving has always been the one holiday during the season that I've ever actually cared about. What's more odd is how this one holiday just happens to fall in my most despised month of the year as well. It just seems a little peculiar that there would be a time in this month that I actually looked forward to...maybe November isn't as bad as I thought..

Now I never minded working on Xmas Eve or Xmas Day, those always were scratched off of my Holiday Request Forms anyway. However, working on Thanksgiving was just so...un-American to me? Maybe not as bad as working on the Fourth of July, but I'm sure pretty darn close..

I could try to come up with a reasoning for why Thanksgiving has a special place in my heart, but really, looking back on the past 10 years, those reasons really wouldn't hold any weight. I don't celebrate Thanksgiving in the most traditional sense - how the needy pilgrims almost on the verge of death tricked and conned the natives into sharing food allowing the pilgrims to survive and ultimately that would be the natives demise..having those settlers only to take over more land, kill, and push further and further West only to be secluded to what could accurately be described as concentration camps...you may be used to the phrase "reservations", same difference.

No, I take a more modern approach to the day, which has in my opinion, adapted over the years. Back when i was a kid growing up, it was a big feast and spending time with the family. The adults cooking massive amounts of food that you then would be trying to consume for the next week or so...but for me, it wasn't that family orientated..it was the same three people i saw on any other dinner..i don't recall any sort of traditions..Xmas music played, the fire place would be going..that was about it.

After highschool, those unsettled years, is when i believe i started to develop a sense for this holiday. Being on my own and not having a real home anymore I was picked up, adopted in a sense, by other families, friends, coworkers, etc. Being welcomed into someone else's home brought forth what the meaning behind this special day was. Being apart of others traditions (JELLO SLAPPING HERE), going 'round the table telling what each of us were thankful for, even though it was new to me, actually meant something. Having people open up their homes and kitchens for you on a day that is generally meant as a family get together stirred a warm feeling inside of me and gave me a sense of belonging - even during my weakest of months.

During those unsettled early years I focused a lot on the holiday shopping, making Black Friday apart of the holiday rituals. I anxiously stayed up all night, driving out to the malls and big stores, waiting in line, fought the crowds, sat in traffic, and was apart of the mayhem. It excited me. Most people said I was crazy for wanting to go out into such a mess, but after being out in it, I wasn't the only crazy person, in fact, I'd say there were a lot of them. Now granted, I didn't have lists, or agendas, or itineraries to follow - sure I looked over the Thanksgiving ads and spotted some things I wanted to grab, but I don't think I did it for "the savings"

Maybe the only type of saving that really was happening was a saving of myself. Being apart of something larger than me, the hustle 'n bustle, the crowd, and all the emotion that went into that day, that weekend, made me feel alive. Perhaps it was a culmination of that day, Thanksgiving, and the beginning of the holiday season that help cause an upswing to get me out of my November funk, driving home that final nail in the final weekend before a new month, and soon a new year began.

This year I am not spending Thanksgiving with family. And like years past I will probably just wing it, people tend to have more of a sense of pity this time of year. Whether I eat some turkey from an oven cooked bird or in a sandwich I bought from Subway, I'll make due. I didn't send out a mass text to everyone in my phone like so many people do; rather this time i sent the "Happy thanksgiving...i'm thankful blablabla" - a personalized account of what i was actually thankful for. As wonderful as it sounds, it of course could only be performed in such as a backhanded compliment that only the Jangus could give.

All in all, i'm not sure what i'm really thankful for, this year could be erased for all i really care - but that discussion is more for my year in review blog - i want to be thankful for having a girlfriend be faithful to me while i went to bootcamp, but i can't say that. I want to be thankful for meeting someone who challenges me in a way that only i've been known to do, but i can't do that. i want to be thankful for my new career choice, but i won't do that. I want to be thankful i'm not in indy, but i'm finding Californians rate pretty close to how horrible indy was, so i can't do that. i want to be thankful for a Michigan victory this weekend, but i can't do that, yet...

i'm thankful for the blessed union of mark and ginger - their enduring relationship is the only thing that really gives me hope for anything. God bless you two. Cheers.







"Thank you for being a frie-WILL SOMEONE TURN OFF THE RADIO!"