Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States of America, a day set aside to give thanks for the fact that the original people of this continent took pity on the badly equipped and woefully inexperienced white settlers, and shared enough of their food and farming methods so the new people could survive their first few winters here, and, eventually, show their gratitutde by importing smallpox, measles, cowboys, and 300 million of their friends.
Most Amercians will celebrate this day of thanks by eating far more than we should, watching American football, and sampling various beverages that the original Puritan settlers would frown upon mightily.
Cheers.
Before I get too busy today, I want to mention a few things for which I am grateful:
I am thankful to have my health, to still be here, and that my husband is doing better with his health. I am thankful that we have been able to repair my mother's house after Hurricane Katrina. I am grateful for our pets. I am thankful for our friends and relatives, and I am grateful that I can have such luxuries as a computer and Internet service in a world where most people don't even have enough to eat and can't be sure if their little mud-brick house will be bombed out from under them today, or not.
As a knitter, I'm glad that I live in a place where I have an abundance of knitterly supplies to choose from, moreso even than some other first world countries, like Ireland, where most of my ancestors came from, two blinks back in history.
I'm quite grateful for my readers here, who brighten my day with their comments and just by being around to read my offerings, something every writer craves.
I'm also grateful to the original people of the nation I live in.
If you are an American, look at your Thanksgiving table: turkey, potatoes, corn, pumpkin, tomatoes, squash ...
that's all Indian food. An astounding percentage of the food Americans rely on was the original food of the original people.
So take a moment today to thank them in some knitterly way.
If you have one, spin some yarn on a Navajo spindle.
Cast on for a hat or pair of socks for the Adopt-A-Native-Elder program:
http://www.anelder.org
If you live near one, go to an Indian casino after dinner, have a drink and spend some money.
Call it, "rent."
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone ... enjoy the day, the feast and your family.
--Mambocat
5 comments:
I am very grateful to be one of your readers.
I am grateful for the differing views and similar interests that can be found in the blogs.
I am grateful we can learn from others around the world. Hopefully we can learn and appreciate the gifts that each race, country and individual can bring to the table.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
What you said Dez.
I can add I'm grateful for my friends. You know, the real, true ones, of which I have very few, although I have a bazillion acquaintences.
Yep, all of what you said. That photo is absolutely breat-taking. Thank you.
And a happy Thanksgiving to you, too, from us here in Scotland.
Our thanksgiving is a little later than yours - today, in fact, as we've managed to get the hotel ready for guests just in time!
Marianne sent me over and I'm glad I called by . I am English but sent some childrens knitwear to The Lakota Sioux Res. I loved your post and as I love all those foods too "thank-you to Native Americans ".
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