As we come upon Indigenous American Genocide Day, I reflect on this holiday I call Thanksgiving and have celebrated for 41 years.
To me, a white person, with enough disposable income to afford dinner with all the trimmings, this holiday is about family. It's about colder weather and gathering together with people that I love, eating gluttonous amounts of food. It's about focusing on gratefulness rather than the commercial nightmare that Christmas has become. It's the one time of year that I eat turkey.
It is my favorite holiday. I love dinner at 12, laze about watching movies or football, eat again at 4, take a nap, eat some pie. Apple is my favorite pie of all time. I don't care if everyone else eats pumpkin pie.
But what does it say about my values? My priorities? My care and concern for others?
At some point along the journey of my life, I picked up the phrase, "Don't be sorry, just don't do it anymore."
Taking your own advice is never easy. How can I retain a personally meaningful tradition that is divorced from its origins?
As a white person, I have discarded the "traditions" of my family because they seemed so meaningless. How can I honor the traditions, and lives, of others if I don't even honor my own traditions?
How do I reconcile the two?
tough questions. I don't have answers, I have my own struggles with this holiday. I also love gathering people I love and sharing food and fellowship.
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