Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving 2012: this is the first time we broke the tradition me & Ruma had started. Because of moving & such, we skipped making, hosting the Thanksgiving dinner this year. Instead we had dinner with one of our friends and the highlight was ‘khasir mangsho’ and roasted chicken.

It makes me sad. It makes me sad for not being able to buy the turkey, wash & clean it with Siana watching, and then bake it. Last year she was quite excited. She kept asking if the Turkey was done yet. She wanted to open the fridge to make sure the turkey was OK. Didn’t get to do any of those this year.

But I am also delighted, happy about not getting sucked into the whole ‘Black Friday’ thing this year. Just like Eid, Thanksgiving is about spending time with family, loved ones, or close friends. It is sad to see the whole thing becoming more & more commercialized. For big retails, ‘Black Friday’ wasn't enough; they had to start ‘Black Thursday’ too? Or at least that’s what it seemed like on my run on Thursday morning at 4.00 am. I was running down Hickman when I saw all these people lined up in front of Kmart and more cars were turning in to the parking lot. Part of me felt devastated for humanity.

This is the kind of world our kids are going to grow up in? What are we teaching to our kids? It is more important to possess something, post about it on Facebook than spend time with your family. So what will happen when a kid living in Kansas finds out about the great deal in the only store in Nebraska? Won’t he be tempted to skip the dinner with family for the awesome deal? Is that not happening already?

At our friends’ house last night, I was trying to make the point, trying to get the idea, message across. I even used the Eid as a connotation. It felt like, I was hitting a wall with all five adults. The blank expression on their face and right afterward showing the stuff they had bought on BF.

We as humans are already turning books down in favor of some gadgets. We are already forgetting how to write with a pen & paper. Now it is more important to post a pic of a dying person on Facebook then help that person…well hell, we might as well kick Thanksgiving to the curb.