Oh how far we have come. Thanksgiving is still one of my favorite holidays; one of the reasons being it is less touched by commercialism than the vast majority of holidays. However, it's still a far cry from the holiday's historical roots, or even from what I remember as a kid (I know, I know, the old "back in my day..."). As for the latter, I was reminiscing to my husband how much my brother and I used to love watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade when we were kids. For shits and grins I turned on the TV to catch a few minutes of it this morning. It's still as schmaltzy as ever, but now there is a whole new level of corporate advertising involved that I don't remember being quite so prevalent many years ago. Seems that you can't just be a teen singing sensation; you have to be backed up by giant M&M marketing gimmicks.
Even though the commercialism is relatively sparse - especially in contrast to Christmas - the idea of excess is in full force. We're encouraged to stuff our faces and then laze around in gluttony while we watch the big football game. Granted, I've been guilty of this charge in past years, but I want to turn that around. I'm certainly not a fan of the Puritans but I do appreciate that this was their day of fasting, their day of moving towards higher spiritual meaning.
Anyway. I'll get off my soap box and move on with my day. Thanks to all of you out there - your friendships mean a lot to me.
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1 comment:
And thank you to you. I can't imagine life without you.
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