Friends, family and food illustrate Thanksgiving, a holiday around gratitude, but it is also tailgated by Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, and by Cyber Monday, for those who refuse to leave the dinner table at all.
A great amount of time is spent on preparing the excessive amounts of artery-clogging dishes because we are thankful.
We are thankful for good health so we indulge in feasts at least twice the size of the recommended daily caloric intake.
We are thankful for having food on our plates every day so, in one sitting, we eat a meal big enough to feed an entire village.
We are thankful there is no poverty in the world and we can dispose our leftovers in the trash without any guilt.
We are thankful for our families and, for one day, we are willing to put aside our differences – just for that day though. Let’s not get too crazy.
We are thankful for being able to be hypocrites without having anyone reprimand us because the entire country is on the same boat.
We are thankful for employment so we take not one, but two days off of work for the sake of gluttony and good sales.
That’s what we do when we are thankful.
And then there is the story behind Thanksgiving.
We celebrate because once upon a time, we invaded someone else’s property to kill them and claim their land as our own.
We reenact this annually during Black Friday, when stores nationwide turn into battlefields.
We eat in abundance, and while the food is barely settling into our stomachs and we feel the weight of a dawning food coma, we rush out the door to get to Target by midnight.
The very next day after the holiday, the very next minute, we trample each other for plasma televisions as big as our meals because we are so thankful for everything we have.
We eat like animals – pigs, to be more accurate- and then we fight like animals.
The less hypocritical of us completely skip out on the holiday and camp outside because store deals have priority.
At least they got it right. They should be thankful for integrity.
In case a 4-day weekend filled with food and sales consumption isn’t enough, we get a fifth day for the online shoppers among us.
We don’t even need to leave our dining table to take advantage of great discounts.
We are thankful for good health after all, so why bother putting physical effort into our shopping.
We get to spoil ourselves – not only thanks to online deals, but also because we get to keep our 5-day food binge going in the same, idle position.
