To Give Thanks or To Not Give Thanks
Despite myth and rumor around the holiday, Thanksgiving at its core is a celebration of harvest. It was a time to come together and look upon the blessings of the year in celebration, and preparation for the coming winter that was sure to be hectic and possibly deadly. The growing season was ending and reserves were your source of life until the spring.
Today, Thanksgiving is a tradition, a holiday of family and friends coming together to share in joy and remembrance. Almost every year there is someone or something missing - a memory worth preserving and enjoying in retrospect. Yet this year governments and people are demanding this time of feast and family be abandoned due to COVID19.
In the past it would be unthinkable to demand families remain separated after such an extraordinarily difficult period. Many people find solace in surrounding themselves with loved ones when their lives have been affected by loss of life, income, emotional well-being, and stability. But in 2020, when the state is seen as the parental figure and its dictates are so often looked upon as scripture, the holiday is dismissed with contempt and families are being told their desire to come together is selfish in nature. We're to believe it is no time to celebrate, but time to sacrifice and fear for our safety - to be responsible for others and their safety.
Bah-humbug.
If you dare suggest these demands are hysterical you'll soon be accused of wanting to kill grandma. This kind of hyperbolic nonsense is commonplace in the 21st century; racist, NAZI, socialist, fascist, communist, white supremacist, bigot, treason, homophobe, transphobe, Islamaphobe, and any number of other phobes and ists are thrown around accusingly when someone disagrees with you about benign political bullshit that you cling to with the zeal and conviction of a suicide bomber ready to indulge in his share of virgins.
The hysteria surrounding an airborne virus with a 99.8% survival rate is revelatory in its exposing of just how spoiled Americans have become. They preach the sermon of a dark winter and expect everyone to kowtow to their prescriptions without question or adversity. If you happen to divert from their narrative you side with the virus (you support the terrorists) or you're looked upon with suspicion because if we don't fight them over there we have to fight them over here… oh wait (War propaganda never changes)
“Even one person dying is too much,” becomes the mantra of an overmedicated society feigning moral superiority due to their lack of meaning or joy. As if death by COVID is somehow more of a death than the billions that have died in human history. Misery loves company, and you've been recruited.
If, in fact, there is a dark winter ahead, I wish to spend it as my ancestors did, revelling in the company of my family and friends, enjoying the blessings of the year and the fruits of our labor. Knowing that winter will be full of hardship is no reason to lock yourself in a cold dark hell waiting for heaven to shine down on you. Rather, look for the bright spots in life, enjoy your family and friends, feast, live, laugh, love, and tell a morally outraged authoritarian to go fucketh thyself with a smile on your face.
Give thanks. Be happy. Make the most of life.
Happy Thanksgiving!