More Than Thanks

Aside from the actual act of thanksgiving itself -- I do sincerely hope that you all took a personal moment for introspection -- the Thanksgiving weekend is all about the food, always about the food. Dishes, desserts, and delicacies piled sky-high, ocean-wide, made from turkey, ham, cranberry, pumpkin, or whatever else lies in the Thanksgiving canon of recipes, are pushed onto your plate for a course of two to three hours on the third Thursday of each November. Oh, and for me, there's also plenty of Chinese food to go around since most of the people at my Thanksgiving gatherings are, in fact, Chinese themselves.

For my waistline, this year's Thanksgiving weekend was harrowing in particular because I'd eaten away from home six times (!); I think I've eaten enough to feed a Somalian child for a month. It's as though this holiday exists for the sole purpose of preparing you for winter hibernation, a wholly unnecessary phase for the homosapien species (discounting your fat, lazy cousin who sleeps all day). So I've had it with food. I don't want to think about food or talk about food right now, nor for the next week, for that matter.

It's not that I'm ungrateful for having this excess of food around. After all, for that aforementioned Somalian child, food is a necessity in sparse supply. It's just that I wish I could take some of this food -- that's really too much for one person to take -- and hand a plate over to the kid. (How he came all the way over from Somalia to be at my table would be another story.) So long as the third world exists, there's humanitarian work to be done.

I hope you don't just look at your own life and think about how oh-so-wonderful you are for having given thanks this past weekend. I'm tired of people who think that being responsible for yourself, and finding yourself, is all that's necessary. There are far too many needs in this world for you to think that way. The best virtue of Thanksgiving is not simply the (re)discovery of all that you have to be thankful for, but rather enabling someone else to be thankful for all manner of things in life.

It's been said many a time that here in America far too many of us live without ever appreciating a single thing (especially if immaterial possession). I think most of us are, in fact, conscious of this condition even if we aren't actively seeking to correct this failing. At the least, the holiday of Thanksgiving brings us one opportunity a year to overcome our ingrate spirit. But even if we were to be thankful for all we've got 24-7-365, would that be enough?

It's also been said many a time that whatever problems you think you've got in life, there's always someone else worse off than you, guaranteed. Too many people reflect upon that sentiment and go on with their lives happier with what they've got, using it as a means to improve themselves. But what about the other guy who's worse off? Shouldn't the point of that sentiment be something akin to an effect of communal reform as opposed to personal improvement? I say, sure, it's a truly wonderful thing to be thankful for what you've got in life. But don't forget to help out that other fellow. A'ight, cue Bill Withers in the background and I'm out.