So what makes it a holiday? Every single week you’re cooking a chicken. So now you’re cooking a bigger chicken?!
Maybe it seems different because you leave out the kugel and replace it with a pumpkin pie?
Or maybe it’s just nice to be together with family during the week in a nice formal way?
Maybe what’s nice about it is that there is nothing complicated here. No major demands, unless of course you feel compelled to go the Macy’s day parade. Otherwise the holiday just says what it is. In these times, when things are always more complex than we’d like them to be, it’s nice to confront straightforwardness.
Things have become detailed, intricate, complicated.
People don’t just walk around saying I have a cold or headache. Everyone is walking around with a code you have to decipher like ADD, or OCD, or an IEP.
People can’t be open on dates anymore. They have to get back to a middle man, who has to figure out what you are really saying, in order to get back to the other person, and then figure out what that person is really saying, in order to get back to you!
When it comes to communication we have to do a lot of it before we can actually do it. You have to ask- do you email, or text, or Facetime or Snapchat or WhatsApp or Instagram, or or or? What happened to a simple, “can I call you?”
Do you spin or cycle or do yoga or do Pilates or weight lift, or hang from the ceiling or or or? What happened to, “do you exercise?”
You can’t say how about something to eat without prefacing it with -Are you vegan or vegetarian, or lactose or gluten free….
A latte, a cappuccino, macchiato, Frappuccino, SCHMAPACHINO -you can’t just ask, “how about a cup of coffee?”
So you see what I mean. We’ve gotten more intense. More detailed. More specific! And sometimes it takes a lot longer to get to the point.
I’m not making a judgement that these changes are necessarily good or bad. I’m just saying it’s nice when something can still be simple. Thanksgiving- there, that’s it, it says it all in 2 words. Like it or not, celebrate it or not, it’s just a day with no hidden agenda. Just a little wake up call.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” says the prolific English writer William Shakespeare. That’s true if the object has an essence of its own. But here the name gives it the essence. It’s all in the name. Without the name it would just be like any regular day of the week. Unless, and here’s the rub, you realize that any day, even without calling it Thanksgiving, can be as sweet. I’m simply adding, with no long winded details, that it’s up to you, any day can be worthy of thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is like a giant Shabbos. How come we like it so much. I guess it proves we are hung up on Shabbos. Another time to hang out and bond with our family
Rivki Rosenwald is a certified relationship counselor, and career and life coach. She can be contacted at 917-705-2004 or rivki@rosenwalds.com