Thanksgiving: The day before Black friday

As I ponder the upcoming holidays I am always amazed at what we actually celebrate and how we do it. Take Easter, a great reason for Christians to celebrate the Resurrection Of Christ. But then where exactly did the easter bunny come from? I think you get where I am going here. The true meanings of holidays get skewed by humans and their quirks. I, personally have always loved Thanksgiving! As a holiday, the concept seemed correct, wonderful and tasty to me. The time to spend time with family and friends and then eat like a pig and watch football. It may disappoint some of you, but feel it is a perfect concept for a holiday. Gratitude and food! Thanks and giving, the perfect reasons to celebrate! If the Detroit Lions would start winning games it might make it slightly better. Not knowing that the football game on TV is over in the first five minutes.

Holiday expectations cause people to do all kinds of things to get to the turkey dinner- fly, drive and take days off work and school (for a turkey dinner). I see the lines of people getting felt up by TSA employees to get home on the news and I am glad to be in my chair. I do feel that the pull and enjoyment of being with others is the true positive of Thanksgiving. What? A holiday focused on gratitude and family- has the government of the United States lost its mind? Take one other holiday for example. Columbus Day is surely a farce- he discovered the Island of Hispanola, known today as Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Why would we celebrate that? If Columbus truly "discovered: America- how do the thousands who were already here feel about that? The legacy of "Manifest Destiny" and the wholesale destruction of the American Indian is regrettable and still the terrible question. WHY? ARROGANCE AND RELIGION-THAT'S WHY. We all need to seek to understand history so that we do not repeat it. Ignorance is comfortable for many of us and yet the Pilgrims did no good for the indigenous peoples of the Americas. What are they thankful for? Annexation, reservations and demonization as a people? Were they savages or a civilization that had survived for centuries doing just fine on their own? Wounded knee was a massacre and yet 25 U.S. Soldiers received the Medal of Honor for killing 338 people who would not stop dancing the "ghost dance" in hope of a messiah to rescue their people. Pilgrims? Manifest destiny?

I look at the "truth" according to how I was raised and realize that we all know shades of the truth. We may be completely incorrect. The internet gives instant information and yet is it true information? I will bet that the Indians were not that happy to have the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims. They had everything to lose. We still portray the first holiday as a cooperative dinner- I will bet the concept is fantasy or close to it.

We should eat, we should meet and Okay- watch football. We also need a reason to make pumpkin pie once a year. I would suggest that we seek to act correctly toward all people we encounter. DO seek to know the lessons of history and DO seek to be better than previous generations. Seek to be compassionate and show gratitude. If you don't see family and friends face to face this season, get on the phone and tell people they are loved or forgiven-do not wait to be thankful for all you have. Gratitude is a good reason to celebrate even if the history that gives the backstory is fantasy! Look on any street, in any school or hospital and you can see far more difficult challenges than you face -be thankful it isn't you-today. Go Lions! Stay warm in the Target parking lot tonight- I will be asleep from my overeating!