If I get this post up as planned, Thanksgiving will be TOMORROW! Of course, the Fall season is, for many people, all about Thanksgiving (and Pumpkin Spice, of which I am NOT particularly fond). That is to say that I’m actually QUITE FOND of it as an ingredient in pumpkin PIE filling, or that sort of item, but the idea of using it in/on EVERYTHING edible and/or drinkable for the entirety of the Fall season, does NOT excite me. So, while I do intend to touch on the Thanksgiving holiday itself, I also feel a need to comment on the overabundant use of this concoction of spices in/on just about EVERYTHING during this season! If you are one of those people who just can’t wait for “Pumpkin Spice Season,” that’s your right, but I am NOT one of those. After all, it’s MY blog, and I’ll complain if I want to.
I suppose that I should note that I, apparently, am NOT the only person who gets a bit put out by the constant and overabundant use of “pumpkin spice” (which is NOT, actually A spice, but a blend of spices originally prepared for use ON/IN pumpkin dishes). Note this cartoon from Between Friends.
My suspicion is that the over-use of this spice blend may well be a plot, as suggested in this Pearls Before Swine strip.
Surely this is a time for all “right-thinking” people to gather their forces and help each other resist the forces which are trying to dominate (and destroy) us. The perfect place to try to find assistance in this battle should be the home. But, sometimes one can even find others within one’s own home who will join against you in this battle, as this from Zits suggests.
It’s even possible that the “pumpkin spice” forces MIGHT have gone beyond just infiltrating your family, and gotten to your friends(?) who will then make efforts to undermine your determination to survive their insidious influence, as this from Luann suggests.
Personally, I say, “ICK! However, I am led to believe that it’s highly possible that the “Let’s keep the pumpkin spice for use on/with PUMPKIN movement” may well be fighting a losing battle. I don’t think I am ever likely to understand the obsession which far too many people seem to have with this quite pleasant blend of (usually) cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and (sometimes) allspice. It IS good on/with pumpkin, but to make it the dominant flavor of EVERYTHING once the fall season begins just seems excessive. It leads to what can only be described as a form of insanity (see below).
But enough about that. I just can’t stand any more of it! So, let’s move on to something else, like (as I promised) Thanksgiving itself.
Thanksgiving is, of course, intended to be a “holy day” designed to give thanks to a Deity for our having survived the year successfully. It’s said that it was made into a national holiday to honor the Separatist (Pilgrim) settlers of what came to be Plymouth, Mass. They, of course, were unhappy with the official (Anglican) Church of England, so they left England to establish themselves in a place where they could practice their version of religion as they wished without the Monarch telling them what they were required to believe and practice.
They, of course, believing themselves to be the “TRUE people of God,” weren’t about to worry much about what happened to the people who already lived on/in the land that they got “permission to settle on” from the King of England. After all, THOSE pagan/native/creatures were just “heathens,” who couldn’t really be considered actual “people,” after all. So, the indigenous folk have often been largely ignored in the Thanksgiving story, when it’s pretty well established that the colony at Plymouth might very well not have survived that first year without the assistance of those “savages.” The “savages,” of course, were eventually repaid by the settlers by being exposed to European diseases and by having what they had always considered to be “their” land occupied by and under the forcible control of those settlers whom they had assisted. However, that’s NOT how the story has come down to us, so it’s not what we are supposed to believe.
Actually, that’s probably okay because, at least for a lot of people, Thanksgiving often is really just an occasion when they feel they have to put up with (be polite to) too many relatives of whom they are NOT necessarily all that fond. This, of course, CAN lead to humor, as in this strip from The Wizard of Id because it portrays this attitude/situation quite amusingly, I think.
For many of us (Yes, me, too.), such gatherings are also occasions for the preparation of TOO MUCH food which, obviously, can (and often does) lead to too many “leftovers.” Now, I am actually quite fond of sandwiches made from leftover turkey meat, with Swiss cheese, some lettuce, and a bit of mustard and mayo, especially on good Rye bread. However, I have found that it is often the case that there are also considerable “leftover” supplies of everything else which had been prepared for the Thanksgiving feast. Most of these items I enjoy, but I confess that I do, eventually, get tired of them. Apparently, I am not the only one to notice this phenomenon, as is suggested from this cartoon from The Born Loser.
So, I guess what I’m trying to suggest is that while I, personally, am fairly fond of Thanksgiving, it sometimes seems to fade into the “Holiday” season which starts around the Autumnal Equinox, continues through Halloween/All Saints Day, lasting until well after the Winter Solstice and start of the New Year.. This season has considerable significance in MANY spiritual traditions. At the moment (in the US, at least), however, it tends to be dominated by COMMERCIAL aspects! I confess that I have wished that it was possible to have a little better control relating to the sequencing of holidays, rather than having them all jumbled on top of each other, as seems to be the current case. Each seems to crowd in on and (therefore) diminish the significance of the others. Hence, I would strongly support the idea expressed below by The Wizard of Id.
Still, the “holidays” (whichever ones YOU celebrate) SHOULD be a time for family, friends, peace, and happiness. AS they approach, I hope that your celebrations are (at least mostly) of that nature.
I’ll probably touch on other aspects of the season in posts in the immediate future, as it IS that time of year, and they are on my mind, but we’ll all know more about that when I put up my next post in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I hope that y’all have a pleasant Thanksgiving!
RSS Feed