I joined my wife’s family for thanksgiving. I always grinch at thoughts of gratefulness knowing the true history. This year one of the fathers ask the children ages 8-12 to say one thing they were grateful for. It touched me being in this pandemic and all but host, the family figure of grand papa refused. Said in his French accent that it was “stupid”. Stupid. One of the 8 year olds asked, but “Papa aren’t you grateful you play tennis every day?” Flabbergasted and left without a come back he ceded and agreed with his grandchild. So whether it’s Turkeys or pizza for the children’s sake make it a joyful greatful event. Change it to Thanksforbeing day!
Ok, I gotta say that I simply love that Filha was savvy enough to be clear that for her superpower of bringing beings back to life means “as they were” and NOT as zombies. She just proved herself smarter than all the scientists in all the blockbuster movies ever. :-)
This is (as you know) utterly relatable. We did Chinese takeout instead of Turkish, but I forgot it even WAS Thanksgiving until I opened up FB and saw my American friends talking about it. Neva loathed Thanksgiving - partly because of her Blackfoot heritage, partly because she haaated cooking (or eating!) turkey. It's pretty shocking when you grow up and learn real history around the white settlers and the indigenous people, when, as you said, all you learn growing up is that God-loving Pilgrims were besties with the Indians, and everyone hugged each other and ate corn. Yeesh!
“Leaving behind” appears that your family is visiting it with a fresh conscious explorer heart - literally, instead of the sugarcoated historical conquering perspective. I like this new tradition.
I joined my wife’s family for thanksgiving. I always grinch at thoughts of gratefulness knowing the true history. This year one of the fathers ask the children ages 8-12 to say one thing they were grateful for. It touched me being in this pandemic and all but host, the family figure of grand papa refused. Said in his French accent that it was “stupid”. Stupid. One of the 8 year olds asked, but “Papa aren’t you grateful you play tennis every day?” Flabbergasted and left without a come back he ceded and agreed with his grandchild. So whether it’s Turkeys or pizza for the children’s sake make it a joyful greatful event. Change it to Thanksforbeing day!
"...a fabricated patchwork of wishful white thinking." great line, thank you for your words, LaDonna.
Ok, I gotta say that I simply love that Filha was savvy enough to be clear that for her superpower of bringing beings back to life means “as they were” and NOT as zombies. She just proved herself smarter than all the scientists in all the blockbuster movies ever. :-)
Happy Thursday!
Insightful and beautifully written. Your daughter is a lucky gal!
This is (as you know) utterly relatable. We did Chinese takeout instead of Turkish, but I forgot it even WAS Thanksgiving until I opened up FB and saw my American friends talking about it. Neva loathed Thanksgiving - partly because of her Blackfoot heritage, partly because she haaated cooking (or eating!) turkey. It's pretty shocking when you grow up and learn real history around the white settlers and the indigenous people, when, as you said, all you learn growing up is that God-loving Pilgrims were besties with the Indians, and everyone hugged each other and ate corn. Yeesh!
“Leaving behind” appears that your family is visiting it with a fresh conscious explorer heart - literally, instead of the sugarcoated historical conquering perspective. I like this new tradition.