First of all, happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Thanksgiving was always my favorite non-religious holiday (a close second to Passover), and it was a shame to miss it this year. I don't have any regrets about missing Halloween or my birthday or Saint Patrick's Day or any of those other dumb American holidays - sadly, I won't miss Valentine's Day, as it exists in this country as well. But missing Thanksgiving was more difficult for me. The last couple of years I've gone to Detroit and with the whole extended family I supped on the delicious Thanksgiving sweet potatoes and turkey stuffing I never had growing up, and now that I'm getting used to it I decided to live in another country. Plus I have absolutely no idea how to make these foods.
Originally the plan was to celebrate with a coworker, but she got sick and had to cancel, so I went out with Can and his girlfriend last night for a chicken sandwich and a strawberry mojito in Taksim. It was a good time, and it gave me a moment to be thankful for things.
And isn't that what the holiday is really about? Isn't it important that, at least once a year, we think about all the things in our lives that are wonderful and special, the things that make us excited to wake up every day and make each breath and each heartbeat pay off? For me, Thanksgiving has always been about the joys in my life that I'm lucky to have compared to the many people who don't have that luxury: that I can eat three meals - or more! - each day, that I have a wonderful job and the finances to support myself, that I have a wonderful family and a great group of friends who stick behind me through everything, that I have the ability to write stories and play music, that I'm healthy and young, that I have warm and friendly coworkers, that I'm living in a beautiful place and that I can live in this beautiful place even though it's far away from my home, that my family and friends support my distance.
I could go on and on. But even more profound for me is that I'm forced to think about the people who don't have these things. In this way, Thanksgiving is like Passover, when we're meant to be grateful for our delivery from bondage but recognize that so much of the world is still trapped in slavery and always will be. On Thanksgiving many people do not have the means for a big Turkey dinner with a loving family, or a chicken sandwich in a bar with a kanka (Turkish for blood brother, or dude). Thanksgiving is the time of year for me to forget about how tired I am from work, how distant my friends and family are, or any of my small problems and concentrate on how wonderful my life is.
So I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, a wonderful meal, and the chance to contemplate the best things in your life. It's really a beautiful experience.
Ruben made Turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes and every other traditional dish, every year that we shared Thanksgiving with his family. Not to mention the handful of traditional Thanksgivings that I prepared. Not until the recent past have I given up on the traditional fare, objecting to the turkey slaughter, but alas you were never at these alternative feasts (which were quite good--some would say great).
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