[MO: Saint's Eye View] A slight detour
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Nathan St. Pierre
Nov 22, 2006, 5:53:44 AM11/22/06
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As I normally am covering a lot of world news topics, I usually deal with only absolute current events and examine the ramifications of each. This leads to a little bit of a dry overall context from which to draw any further blog-style existential meaning, but I strive for excellence in all my various trades.
As the world is going batguano crazy I try to be an anchor in the storm to at least drag you under the tidal wave so you realize how pointless an anchor in a storm is. But coming up very soon (and probably the reason most of the bloggers in this group haven't said much in awhile) is the annual celebration of gluttony Thanksgiving. And I'd like to take a look at that, maybe if nothing else with a little world perspective.
The American focus on the family is no more or less complex than say the European focus on the family, but the context is a good bit different. A lot of people outside the US tend to not realize that the US was started as a loose confederation of colonies, and up until the civil war remained for the most part pretty individualized by state. As a united fifty states, we agree only on a few things. We like our diversions, whatever they may be, and we all have an origin. Whether your diversions are video games, sports, hobbies, arts, sciences, or even just old fashioned racist comedy, then you have your niche. But the one thing you can't choose is your origin.
Sure you can deny the town you're from, you can say you're a country boy even if you grew up in the middle of Dallas, or you can say you have street cred if you grew up in the rich part of Orlando, but the truth is that you have an origin, and in most cases, at least some form of a family. Maybe it's because the US is so wide of a nation geographically, or maybe it's just because there are so many different opportunities here, but people and their families tend to find themselves separated a great deal over the years, and the holidays are an excuse to find your roots once again. For the great span of time between the fourth Thursday of November (or second Monday in October for the Cannucks) to the twenty fifth day of December, people have an obligation or an escape route to be with the people with whom they once shared the awful experience of growing up.
Maybe that's a big deal to some people, others avoid it. Some people have come to at least an uneasy peace with their parents and siblings and other extended family. Others are finding themselves at some manner of full scale nuclear war with anyone who shares their last name or genetic similarities.
But no matter what your reason to fight over turkey or stab family members with christmas ornaments and carving implements, you spend time with them. Maybe you argue about your career path with your parents, or your big brother brings up the time you accidentally came on to your cousin when she was looking the other way at a bar. Maybe you wake up and realize you're on the verge of climbing all those steps to the clock tower with a rifle and taking down anyone that looks like your mother (which soon becomes everyone).
But whatever the reason, you're with your family. And for some people that's a standard part of life and by no means reason for a nationally venerated holiday based loosely on pilgrim and indian tales that have long since been disproven. But to others, it's an excuse to be where they feel like they belong, even if they deny it from time to time.
Happy Thanksgiving all, I hope things are going as well for you as they should be for me.
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Posted by Nathan St. Pierre to MO: Saint's Eye View at 11/22/2006 02:34:00 AM
As the world is going batguano crazy I try to be an anchor in the storm to at least drag you under the tidal wave so you realize how pointless an anchor in a storm is. But coming up very soon (and probably the reason most of the bloggers in this group haven't said much in awhile) is the annual celebration of gluttony Thanksgiving. And I'd like to take a look at that, maybe if nothing else with a little world perspective.
The American focus on the family is no more or less complex than say the European focus on the family, but the context is a good bit different. A lot of people outside the US tend to not realize that the US was started as a loose confederation of colonies, and up until the civil war remained for the most part pretty individualized by state. As a united fifty states, we agree only on a few things. We like our diversions, whatever they may be, and we all have an origin. Whether your diversions are video games, sports, hobbies, arts, sciences, or even just old fashioned racist comedy, then you have your niche. But the one thing you can't choose is your origin.
Sure you can deny the town you're from, you can say you're a country boy even if you grew up in the middle of Dallas, or you can say you have street cred if you grew up in the rich part of Orlando, but the truth is that you have an origin, and in most cases, at least some form of a family. Maybe it's because the US is so wide of a nation geographically, or maybe it's just because there are so many different opportunities here, but people and their families tend to find themselves separated a great deal over the years, and the holidays are an excuse to find your roots once again. For the great span of time between the fourth Thursday of November (or second Monday in October for the Cannucks) to the twenty fifth day of December, people have an obligation or an escape route to be with the people with whom they once shared the awful experience of growing up.
Maybe that's a big deal to some people, others avoid it. Some people have come to at least an uneasy peace with their parents and siblings and other extended family. Others are finding themselves at some manner of full scale nuclear war with anyone who shares their last name or genetic similarities.
But no matter what your reason to fight over turkey or stab family members with christmas ornaments and carving implements, you spend time with them. Maybe you argue about your career path with your parents, or your big brother brings up the time you accidentally came on to your cousin when she was looking the other way at a bar. Maybe you wake up and realize you're on the verge of climbing all those steps to the clock tower with a rifle and taking down anyone that looks like your mother (which soon becomes everyone).
But whatever the reason, you're with your family. And for some people that's a standard part of life and by no means reason for a nationally venerated holiday based loosely on pilgrim and indian tales that have long since been disproven. But to others, it's an excuse to be where they feel like they belong, even if they deny it from time to time.
Happy Thanksgiving all, I hope things are going as well for you as they should be for me.
--
Posted by Nathan St. Pierre to MO: Saint's Eye View at 11/22/2006 02:34:00 AM
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