Thanksgiving

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength.  Give thanks for your food and the joy of living.  If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.

~ Tecumseh

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I didn't come to love Thanksgiving until I was an adult.  I didn't really like it as a kid.  I don't love turkey or ham (though there have been turkeys and hams I have had which have been very good).  I do NOT like pumpkin pie.  I am not at all enamored with green bean casserole.  I like corn.  I like stuffing.  I like mashed potatoes - mainly because I grew up in a house that only had mashed potatoes occasionally - as in not every Thanksgiving or Christmas.  We always had boiled potatoes.  Easier, but not an pleasant in either taste or texture, if you ask me.  Which no one ever did or I would have shared my thoughts on that.

As opposed to not liking boiled potatoes that much, I do like gratitude.  I really, really do.  I like to acknowledge what people do and how they make the world a better place.  I like to do it because it makes me feel good, but not because, "Oh, Michelle is so nice.  She always says thank you and good job to people."  No, I like to do it because there are people doing amazing things every day who don't get acknowledged for their contributions.  Not that they are doing kind things to solicit praise.  

I just think it is really important to notice things.  And to let people know that you noticed.

As for Thanksgiving, I like the food even though Thanksgiving food is not all my favorite food.  I like the smells of Thanksgiving.  I like people crowding into kitchens and around tables that are too small.  I like the nervous feeling of being around people you haven't seen in a while and then reconnecting and remembering what you cherish about them.  

When I was a kid, I remember always hearing people talk at my grandparents' house (my Grandma and Grandpa Boettcher's farm).  They talked about what route they took when they drove there.  They talked about the weather.  They talked about how well or poorly their gardens had done.  My dad is the third of three boys, though all of my uncles have since passed.  Anyway, it was the same (to my child-ears BORING) conversation over and over and over.  Seriously, it was so boring that I thought I was going to die.  

I did not die.

Anyway, that was then.  Now I think that Thanksgiving represents love to me.  I think Thanksgiving is about love because it is about food.  I like it when there is drama over what kind of stuffing someone made.  People argue about that kind of thing because they are missing out on some love when they don't have oyster stuffing or cornbread stuffing or whatever kind of stuffing they think they ought to be having.  Every family has a story about the year the dog stole the turkey or the cook used sugar instead of salt to brine the turkey or Thanksgiving dinner was horrible because someone made ham instead of turkey and overcooked the ham so everyone went to Village Inn on the way home to get a "real" Thanksgiving dinner.

Stories are my favorite.  Thanksgiving isn't about gifts and selfishness and commercialization and money.  Not that Thanksgiving dinner is cheap.  But Thanksgiving is about storytelling, story-making, and the mythology of memory. 

Thanksgiving is about being together.  Or thinking of people you aren't with.  And putting love in the food and love in your thoughts and love into the world.

At least that is what it is to me.

Love and sometimes board games.

And board games are about winning.  Which I also love.