You have choices in life, whether you realize it or not!
It is the "Holiday Season" again and everyone is miserable. I am reading online, tales of woe from people who "have to go to Mom and Dad's house" for Thanksgiving and they find the whole experience boring at best, horrific at worst. Either they sit around eating for three days, or go shopping on one of the worst shopping days of the year. If they are particularly unlucky, the asshole Uncle chides them for not supporting Trump.
Family, what's not to like?
I find it hilarious that people say "I have to go" when they don't. If you are a kid, even a college kid, I guess you have no choice. But as a grown adult, with children of your own, you can have your own Thanksgiving - or no Thanksgiving (Oh! Scary!) if you want to. Like most of the rest of the world (the vast majority in fact) it can be just another day. You have choices and being miserable is a choice in many cases, but most people either can't see that or don't want to, as they want something to complain about.
Mark is exhausted from a weeklong effort to set up the Merry Artists show. Over 6,000 works of art and crafts! He's done (with an army of volunteers) enough Christmas decorating to do a dozen homes. So we won't be going overboard at our house this year. And after all that effort, we turned down invites for Thanksgiving from friends. It worked out for the best - Mark also has a bad cold.
But what about family? Most are dead, others live far away. No, I am not buying a plane ticket on one of the busiest days of the year to visit a long-lost relative. It's OK to say "no" to society's traditions.
Besides, Thanksgiving blows. Overeating and football - I guess that is America in a nutshell.
But what does Thanksgiving really celebrate? Sure, it honors the beginning of the genocide of the Native Americans. But it also celebrates our puritanical roots. Remember, these "Puritans" would begat the same folks, who, not so many years later, would hang witches. We've been trying to live that down ever since.
Yea, yea, tradition. Our "Heritage." But it's OK to move beyond heritage, particularly when it celebrates bad things. Some Germans still celebrate Hitler's birthday - that's wrong. Celebrating Puritans landing on Plymouth Rock is equally as bad. It's not like they were the first to colonize America, either. As Cole Porter put it, such a shame Plymouth Rock didn't land on them!
Of course, if you love turkey and football, go for it. I'm not stopping you. But it is a choice and you can;t bitch about how boring it is or how you hate the Black Friday crowds. You can't complain about the choices you make.
Myself, I spent Thanksgiving working on the Buggy. Still, the steering is shot and the brakes are iffy. But it still runs, I guess,.
