Today is Thanksgiving Day. Probably one of my favourite holidays. Great food made to be shared with the people you love most in a spirit of gratitude.
One of the things I love most about India is that you have to work a little harder during the holidays to make it special. Food items here are not commoditised and merchandised so that they practically fall into your shopping cart, particularly not ones specific to an American holiday.
You want pumpkin for that pumpkin pie? Forget the can of Libby's and evaporated milk. Buy a whole pumpkin, cook it, grab some normal milk and hope for the best. You want cranberry sauce? No chance of the tinned stuff here either. And also no actual cranberries. You reduce a box of cranberry juice with some dried cranberries and hope for the best.
Our Thanksgiving meal will be healthy, heartwarming, made with love and shared with good friends (my urban family). We will eat a lot, we will drink Manhattans, and we will most certainly speak about the things we are most thankful for in life. I haven't spoken yet to anyone who is coming to dinner tonight. But I highly doubt that very high on anyone's list will be something that can be bought in a store.
As an American, the most jarring transition between two calendar days for me is the one between Thanksgiving and the day following. On one, we spend the day with people we love, learning new recipes, eating good food, enjoying the ritual of communion, unity, and gratitude that comes along with the holiday. Of course there is gluttony, overindulgence, and the occasional political 'discussion' with a mad uncle, but the essence of the holiday is still family. The day following, so many of us promptly forget all that cultivated thankfulness and gleefully participate in the the unabashed, unbridled consumer hysteria that is Black Friday.
As someone who has been studying our relationship to "things" and the happiness they bring us (or more accurately, the lasting happiness we think they will bring us that they do not), I feel a little more qualified than the average Joe to say this:
Step away from the credit card. Ignore the impulse to join the heaving, angry, hoard at your local toy/clothing/home goods/electronics retailer. You think these "things" will bring you pleasure. It will not last.
Instead, practice your day Thanksgiving Day mantra. "I am thankful for my family and friends. I am thankful for good food. I am thankful for the opportunities life throws at me and the ability to overcome challenges." Now go enjoy your day off playing football in the backyard. Or completing that DIY project that has been sitting unfinished for months. Or repairing something. Take a long walk in a forest.
Or watch this film the climbing and outdoor retailer Patagonia has released: "This short film from Patagonia follows people who have kept their gear for a really, really long time. Its a celebration of stuff you already own, a reminder to tone down your consumerism."
