Spo-Reflections on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is approaching and a part of me would rather skip it. I am watching my waistline. I could readily pass on the lengthy and exhausting process of producing the excess of traditional foodstuffs. It is hard to cook ‘Thanksgiving for two” for there is only Someone and myself; we have no relations in the area, and no invitations from friends or neighbors. So there it is. I vote to watch the NYC parade, make a sandwich, and call it a day.

At work when I voice this modest proposal people are either flabbergasted and/or quickly invite me/us over. This is charitable, but mostly driven out of the horror no one can miss it. Americans have to celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, not Christmas, is the national holiday. To be bereft of such is near blasphemy.

When I lived in Chicago, I often worked the day for it made oodles of money yet there were hardly any emergency room admissions.  Even the mentally ill and the physical sick would not dream of missing Thanksgiving. Mind! I enjoy Thanksgiving when there is a full table of people.

Curiously, economics is beginning to eat away at this once sacred holiday.  Black Friday, like cancer, metastasizes into Thanksgiving earlier each year. I hear this year some stores will open on Thanksgiving, tempting families not to be with each other but go out shopping. Of course, people will have to work that day, which was once quite taboo.