Happy Thanksgiving Bah Humbug

"Thank you." Sometimes just "You Too." Those are my usual responses when someone says "Happy Thanksgiving" to me.

I celebrate the concept of appreciation, of thankfulness. There is too little of it in my personal life these days, but I celebrate whatever little there is and treasure the people who give it for it is the elixir of hope for humanity which is ebbing at an all-time low in me these days. I celebrate any and all appreciation in this world every day. This particular holiday brings me to reflect a little "too much" (hence, here we are in meaningless complaints, aye?) for most people - so prepare for some of my perspective on the unfortunate realities for a few paragraphs. :}

Thanksgiving is not a holiday I celebrate personally, at least not how most people do. I offer surface respect when I decided to go to someone's dinner invitation which I do some years, but it is not a holiday I like because it reminds me of history. One of the most tragic atrocities humankind ever committed was the virtual destruction of many cultures in this "new world" Europeans that named the Americas. Pretending it was a celebratory feast by Pilgrims and Indians can ruin my appetite. The Pilgrims were not the worst of the white men who came to this land, but the holiday represents the coming of the white man to this land as something to celebrate and be thankful for.

That level of denial of reality just does not work for me.

One more aspect of this holiday that turns me off is the same thing about most holidays (don't get me started on Christmas, aye?) which is the gross commercialization and wasteful extravagances. A family in this country alone throws more food into the garbage on this single day of the year than some whole villages in some countries will eat in a week or more. The worst aspect of our current culture is the response to that fact of if you don't like it, leave" that putting this reality out there often elicits.

The fact that many stores open at 6PM, dinner time, and many people move their "Thanksgiving Feast" up to early afternoon (or skip it completely) just to be able to to push and fight for "bargains" is disgusting consumerism in a world desperate for some rational ecological actions, simple fairness, and human decency. "Life's not fair" say the greedy. Only because they choose to be greedy. One of those deadly sins they preach about as they pick your pocket.

Then there's the obesity rate in this country that disgusts me on more than one level and this holiday epitomizes the vulgar waste of wealth and careless disregard for others and this world that only a immature suicidal species would perpetuate, no less celebrate. I don't believe in fat shaming, but I am equally opposed to fat excusing and even more opposed to fat celebrating. BBW is a sick denial of facts even more prevalent than climate denials.

So all this and more is what you invite into your feast if you invite me to a Thanksgiving Dinner at your house. It is amazing I get so many invites, I suppose. I respectfully turned down four or five this year alone. Ungrateful bum that I am, no doubt.

Food for thought.