As an adult, I doubt I've ever celebrated this holiday 'normally'. I learned that as a child whose family was far from normal yet tried their hardest to act normal - especially on the holidays. Big fail! It never worked because my family was so disintegrated and dysfunctional. However, today, that is normal.
It also explains why Thanksgiving has become a shopping day - and for those 'lucky' enough to have a low-paying job in retail, the wonderful opportunity to work the holiday.
Disintegrated and dysfunctional families go to casinos, restaurants, theme parks, and the movies these days to celebrate. If they stay at home for a quiet, intimate and casual celebration, many do so by watching TV, twittering or downloading something online - together as a family of course - virtually connected in a disconnected, disintegrated, dysfunctional 'modern family' milieu.
Anyone can take another day off if they need to work/shop the holiday/holiday weekend. Just transfer, or anticipate the feast day - Catholics do it all of the time. So do families who have loved ones in the armed services and in combat.
Year after year, traditional Thanksgiving has eroded along with the culture.
Photo: Justin Bieber Macy's commercial - one of the best of the season.
Well that sums it up pretty well. Thanks...
ReplyDeletethat's true. then there is my family that gathers around a buffet of food. we hold hands encircled and offer prayer (the angelus) followed w/an impromptu prayer for intentions by my mother, the matriarch, who is still with us, as is dad/patriatch, still hanging on thru his dementia w/lewy bodies. we gather 1 hour prior to the main meal and chit chat with sodas or whiskey slush (we are catholic after all) and then eat. together. then afterwards, depending on your bent, some play cards, others talk around the fire (either fireplace inside or the bonfire outside), or watch the requisite t.v. thing. we're together in our dysfunction, praise God. we have each other, through blood ties, but more important, in Christ. we will make a new normal despite what the world dictates.
ReplyDeleteyou paint better with words than you do with a box of crayons, Mr. Nelson.
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Happy Thanksgiving DB! Your family seems to have preserved the ideal Thanksgiving. I wish I had been there!
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, I worked all day yesterday in a restaurant, and we had lots of families, functioning one's mind you, who were very grateful to have to opportunity to come out and get a good meal without having to cook and clean all day ( unfortunately, mom gets to do all that herself too often).
ReplyDeleteI was happy to serve and entertain, and I earned a good bit of money too, which was a gift because thing are kind of tight. But it was a good day, and I really like doing what I do - and people really were grateful.
Of course, my family had thanksgiving dinner too, just at ten pm followed by a monopoly game until the wee hours if the morning!
T:
ReplyDeleteWow, you made me feel functional and normal. Weird, since being an Alaskan makes me the weird one normally.
I look forward to a blessed Advent with you and all my "blogging family." :P I mean that lovingly and sarcastically all at the same time. I embrace my blogglife. Which is sorta like thuglife but different.
I looked up the reason for calling the day after Thanksgiving, “Black” Friday. It’s because of the increased traffic problems and mob behavior of shoppers. Retailers want to say it’s Black Friday because they need the extra business to stay “in the black” for the year. But until we learn charity, we will not be able to put the negative meaning behind us. This year, some woman maced people so she could get to the front of the checkout line. On Thanksgiving we remember our blessings. On Black Friday we push and shove to demand them.
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