thanksgiving?

i guess i'll write about thanksgiving too.

everyone else seems to be. the teachrs at my school have the students writing about thanksgiving. other bloggers (l-dot) are writing about thanksgiving. charlie brown and the rest of the network television family seem to be focusing on thanksgiving. and anyone who isn't on the thanksgiving tip - is already singing christmas carols!! it's a sad, sad season. no patience whatsoever.

of course, this isn't to say that i'm writing about thanksgiving because everyone else is focusing on it. no, in hindsight, i've written nothing about the katrina issue, or the kanye west response, or the 9-11 anniversary, or the harry potter hype, or the iraq voting process, or ipod nano release, or the missing aruba girl, or the new georgia aquarium. and that was mainly because, i mean, what else was there left to say?

but i digress. thanksgiving has made its way into my blog because my good friend L-Dot wrote about he traditions that she shares with her family during this holiday season. more important in her writing though, was the notion that she would one day have to change those traditions as she continues to mature into the wonderful adult she is becoming. and i agree. yet, i've never really been a fan of thanksgiving. personally, it might very well be at the bottom of my list as far as holidays are concerned. below groundhogs day. and thats because i never understood what thanksgiving was about. i understand the spirit of thanksgiving. and i understand the cultural icon of thanksgiving. but i never quite understood the context in which it was created. and by that, i mean more than understanding it's date. the date of thanksgiving, like the date of christmas, is irrelevat to its meaning.

so as i grew older and began to learn more about thanksgiving, he less ethusiastic i was about it. the less i wanted to celebrate the manipulation and barbarian nature our country was founded on. the less i wanted to acknowledge the traditions set forth by the colonists and settlers of "the new world". the less i wanted to treat it as a "holy-day", which is where the word holiday derived from. holla at your etymology (www.wikipedia.com). but let me not give all the credit to gradual consciousness - i was also the "non-eater" in my family. i was that kid that held his cabbage in the back of his jaw so that he wouldn't have to eat the rest. i was the child that spread his beans apart, so that they looked somewhat eaten. i was the pre-teen that feed turkey slices to the dog under the table. which i'm sure led to the untimely death of our rotty, rudolph. so yeah, a holiday that my family recognized as the holiday to pull out all the food wasn't really the holiday for me as a kid.

my momma even tried making me special plates of macaroni and cheese, and spaghetti.

so in a nutshell, for whatever reason, thanksgiving just isn't really my holiday. and thus, i will be spending my first real holiday without the family this year as i stay here in NY. this is kind of odd for me to be truthful. i know they miss me and i miss them, but i think that this is a part of that process of growing up. i think that this is a part of what L-Dot means by changing tradition as she grows into an adult. i mean, there is a certain adult quality to your folks calling and asking, "son, are you coming home for the holidays?" i remember when they used to curse me out for coming home too late at night! now it's a question of whether or not i'm coming home at all! not telling me to, not a demand or order - a question!!

a question i can say "no" to. and hence, a new experience for me.
thanksgiving.