Thanksgiving 2022

 

Thanksgiving is a national holiday for us today and every year. This morning I made a list of things I am thankful for, and it produced some thoughts. Is it my thanksgiving or ours? What is this day really about?

I have a good life to look back on or think about now. My personal thanks are from the past to the present, about life together with others, and about me as an individual. That is good. But also this day is a national holiday. As a child I learned in school or from society that some white people and some Indians got together and had a feast together as an act of supposed friendship at some time in our racist past. Maybe it happened; maybe not. Our history is full of mythology. Race issues continue to this day.

It appears now that a lot of people see Thanksgiving Day is a time to join together with family and friends to have a big dinner dominated by roast turkey and trimmings. We give thanks as we socialize. Then a lot of people say goodbye and look to the biggest shopping day of the year. The big turkey day is the beginning of buying and spending and worshiping the dollar.

My list of things to be thankful for begins with the ability to do and have all the things on the list; that is what we live with as Americans. I have a good education and I don’t have to go outside with my head and body covered as some women elsewhere do. I have the right to vote, which American women have had for only the last hundred years or so. I participate in Social Security and Medicare as an old person. The American system has given that to me.

Personally, I have much to thank God and others for. Here is the list I put together this morning as my act of appreciation for my good life. Some of it is individual and some about being together.  Thanks for being with others: friends; church; good loving parents, brothers, children and grandchildren; safe home environment in the city of Madison; and of course Pete, the number one man in my present life. Thanks also to Rick, my husband of 46 years of difficult times and good times.

Individually I have much to be thankful for. I have talents and abilities; a safe home in Madison; mostly good health; have not had Covid; food on the table. That is about me and thanksgiving. All my personal blessings come with the benefits of being with others. We don’t do it alone.

As I have said many times, we are all in this together. Happy Thanksgiving.

Turkey Quiche for Two

Leftover turkey is the aftermath of Thanksgiving cooks. Our family gathered at my home and ate plenty, but still I have leftover turkey. I made a big pot of turkey soup and still have leftover turkey. I thought of something else to do with it, and here is a non-traditional quiche that is easy to make and won’t last all week. It has more refined processed food than I prefer (Bisquick), but it tastes good. It’s non-traditional because there is no crust to roll. The Bisquick makes crust while the quiche bakes.

This recipe is a reason to have an 8-inch pie tin in the cupboard even though stores don’t sell them anymore. To solve the 8-inch pie dish dilemma, I think the quiche can be baked in a six by eight inch glass baking dish that Pyrex sells. I didn’t try it since I have a round 8-inch pie pan.

Leftover Turkey Quiche for Two

Put into blender container and blend for ten seconds:

2 eggs

1 cup milk (I prefer whole milk)

1/3 cup Bisquick – regular or gluten free

1/3 cup melted butter

¼ teaspoon salt approximately

Pepper

Pour the blended mixture into ungreased 8-inch pie tin or 6x8-inch baking dish.

Distribute on top:

¾ cup or more chopped cooked turkey (chopped cooked chicken works too)

½ cup or more grated Swiss cheese – or cheese of your choice

Bake it at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Eat it hot.

It is possible to find 8-inch pie plates in thrift stores such as Goodwill.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Our day of national gluttony is almost here. We fill ourselves with turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie, and we sit down to watch football, the sport that offers brain damage from concussions. What a day. It’s one of a few days in the year when families gather to gorge and love one another.

Something has replaced the local enactments of our national mythology. It’s shopping. The thing I have been hearing about is Black Friday. Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, and now it is becoming Black Thursday. A bit of an uproar has surfaced about stores being open all or part of Thanksgiving Day, due to people being required to be at work in those stores when God and country have previously expected them to be at the table and in front of the television set. What has happened to our priorities? Our families?

As long as Black Friday has moved to center stage, Thanksgiving Thursday seems to be taking second or third place. Second place behind our economic system. Third place behind the pilgrims of two hundred years ago and their big dinner with the native people that became part of our national mythology. It’s shopping that matters. Let’s get a head start on Christmas, which is only a month away.

I’m glad to know that some churches in Madison will be serving Thanksgiving dinner for those who would like to partake. Those dinners will be lovingly presented by people who won’t be in their homes and won’t be at the mall. Hats off to them. We still have plenty of goodness in the USA.

What can we say about an economic system that is powerful enough to overtake a national holiday? Are human beings primarily economic animals who serve the capitalist system? Some of the store workers may need the money more than they need a turkey dinner. And the turkeys themselves are part of the financial expense of Thanksgiving. Some people can’t afford big turkeys. Low income people are in a bind every day, not just Thanksgiving Day. It’s a system that needs to go to rehab.

We rejoice with our families as we fill ourselves with turkey, watch football and go shopping. Let’s give a thought to American wonderfulness. Families still matter. Being together and sharing food matter in spite of the things that interfere. Let’s put Black Thursday in the back seat, away from our table.

Thanksgiving and Excess

Next week we will celebrate the day when we fill our stomachs with our national bird, fill our heads with televised football, and now have more opportunities to fill our shopping bags with stuff. Some people might give thanks, but I suspect many won’t. It’s a day off for turkey, football and shopping.

Why will more stores be open on Thanksgiving Day? In my opinion, the answer is because a lot of people will go shopping, in person or online. Black Friday is becoming Black Thursday. I will be glad to be with my family even though one of my daughters will have to leave the festivities and go to work.

In this time of contrasts of plenteousness and less than enough for many, I am struck with the messages I receive from our culture. Not just turkey, football and shopping, but messages that we can have more. This comes home to me when I watch HGTV on television. I started to watch this channel after I bought my house in May. It gave me some ideas about how to make my small old house more up to date and beautiful even though I loved it already.

That’s the HGTV message. Whatever you live in, you can make it better. And what makes it better is renovating or buying your home. In this land of plenty, we can tear down some walls, put in new fireplaces and appliances, install lovely hardwood floors, or just buy them somewhere else. I am amazed at the purchase prices of some of the homes I see on this channel. I also am amazed at the sense of entitlement that is projected by the people who buy or renovate. They don’t settle for Adequate, they want the Newest. They complain about kitchens and bathrooms being outdated. They insist on open concept designs. They hate basement laundry rooms. They want million dollar ocean views. They might be thinking they can be Donald Trump and that it is okay to live like the Donald.

The land of promise is becoming the land of excess, at least for some people, but not for all. The other side of HGTV (not within HGTV’s scope) is inability to buy homes by people who struggle to make a living, not just beautiful homes but any homes. Does a low income person care about hardwood floors and trendy bathrooms? I think that person might be glad just to live somewhere.

I bought my new draperies from JC Penney and new living room carpet from Sergenians, but I did it because they were replacing old, worn draperies and carpeting. I bought them on days other than Thanksgiving. The old carpet and curtains were dated and damaged. That is different from spending excessive amounts of money on items that go far beyond adequacy or need. Yes, people can have a standard of living that does more than fill a need, but I see plenty of opportunities to curb some of the excess.

God has rained many blessings on us. So has the capitalist system. Thanksgiving Day might be improved by thanking God for our blessings and curbing the allure of the economic system for one day. I like HGTV as entertainment and suggestions for home improvement, but I am not enthralled about the underlying message.

Okay, folks. Let’s go to the store when we must. But let’s not do it on Thanksgiving Day. We can hold it at turkey and football.

Thanksgiving--Our National Holiday

Thanksgiving is almost here.  It is one of our two major national holidays, the other being Independence Day, July 4. We have more, but these seem to be the two primary ones.

I think of Thanksgiving Day as part of an interesting progression of secular to religious holidays in American culture. July 4 is political without religious overtones. Thanksgiving is technically national, with thanks given, to God, for the blessings of being Americans in the most wonderful nation on earth. Christmas is technically a religious holiday, with celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and much secular activity.

I see something going on here.  Our national constitution long ago set the stage for separation of church and state. The first amendment clearly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”  Today we have two religious/secular holidays that celebrate the Christianity of our nation, while celebrating secular issues such as turkeys, Santa Claus, home decoration, gift giving and much enhancement of our economic system.

Thanksgiving Day is a big day of patriotism. Schools are closed. People travel to be with their families. Big dinners are prepared and eaten. Sometimes we think about what Thanksgiving is about and why our nation celebrates it. The national mythology tells us that it is about the European settlers sitting down in peace with the Native Americans, to have dinner in friendship. Friendship prevails.

Well, maybe. The Europeans came to our continent with the assumption that they “discovered” it and it was theirs. Yes, but they discovered that people were already here. Here is a quote from a history book by James W. Loewen, in Lies My Teacher Told Me:  “Thanksgiving celebrates our ethnocentrism. We have seen, for example, how King James and the early Pilgrim leaders gave thanks for the plague, which proved to them that God was on their side. The archetypes associated with Thanksgiving—God on our side, civilization wrested from wilderness, order from disorder, through hard work and good Pilgrim character traits—continue to radiate from our history textbooks.” (pp. 95-96, paperback edition)

Thanksgiving is about giving thanks. Thanks for making us white, for our land takeover from the original owners (native tribes), for our immense wealth, and for our being the greatest people on earth (empire). It’s about a huge dinner, usually turkey. It’s also about shopping. The day after the holiday is the biggest shopping day of the year, the inauguration of the Christmas shopping season.

I notice that we have a group of candidates who want to be our next President. I see that religious credentials seem necessary for a President, and in particular, “acceptable” Christian credentials. Some people made much over the myth that President Obama might be a Muslim; he isn’t. Some people are worried about Mitt Romney being a Mormon.  People like to believe that our founding fathers were all members of established churches. I ask, why is faith being dragged through a country that has separation of church and state? Might some people rather want to see our national leaders acting on Christian principles rather than giving lip service to church membership while advocating violence such as two needless wars?  Is this what Thanksgiving is about?

Individually we have much to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family, my deceased parents and husband, and my children and grandchildren. I am thankful that we have enough to eat and a roof under our heads. I am thankful that I have enough money to sustain my life. I am thankful that we live in a society that doesn’t oppress me, although it oppresses some other people. Many Americans are not this well situated.

Bring on our next religious/secular holiday: Christmas.