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Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving in the States, a day when we we watch parades and American football before eating an enormous feast of turkey, 'stuffing,' and mashed potatoes, then chase it down with pumpkin pie.

We Americans grew up with a cherished myth that the first thanksgiving was celebrated when the Native Americans invited the Pilgrims over for a potluck around harvest time.

Every year historians, journalists and other skeptics chip away at the thanksgiving myth. The latest involves a Spanish explorer named Pedro Menendez de Aviles who dined on bean soup with Native Americans in Florida some 56 years before the more famous meal at Plymouth Rock.

In time no doubt we'll learn that Leif Ericson in fact broke bread with Native Americans in Labrador around 1000 AD and that the Basques shared their catch of salted cod with the Natives of New England long before Columbus.

Nonetheless, Americans are pretty much undaunted by these revelations. Here's why: the holiday as we now celebrate it is just so beautiful. Families and friends gather. An enormous meal is prepared. We talk about what it is that we have to be grateful for at the dinner table. We feast. We loosen our belts and take a nap. Then we go home with leftovers in plastic margarine containers.

For my part, I'm grateful to you my readers. Thanks for putting up with my rants. Thanks for disregarding my too frequent errors of spelling, grammar and logic. Thanks for leaving comments. Thanks for suggesting topics. Thanks for practicing cause-related marketing, wherever you are.

And, happy birthday Katie.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Paul,
Thanks for your blog!

--Ryan
12/01/2007 2:28 PM
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