Thanksgiving

Every year thanksgiving comes around and brings with it an aura of good food and family. Turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing litter American kitchens as they prepare to feast. However, the early pilgrims that are said to have made famous our thanksgiving dinner placed little importance on turkey. As a whole they at venison, lobster, clam, mussels and fish. Yes there was turkey, but not at all the staple of the American thanksgiving that it is today. So I ask, why? Why do we celebrate with a dry and bland bird doused in gravy and sauces when we could easily replace it with a much juicier and overall more enjoyable chicken, or perhaps clams and mussels? Venison too would be an apt supplement though you could not call me an avid fan. Would that not make our thanksgiving celebration infinitely more enjoyable? And what is with this stuffing and cranberry sauce? The way I see it American’s are abiding by an early Victorian principle of what the perfect thanksgiving looks like. We are emulating an idyllic scene that is not only wholly false but completely off base. Sure we can keep the hearty mashed potatoes and gravy, and I have to admit, I would be completely disheartened if my mother’s chocolate pecan pie disappeared, but I believe we have the complete and utter right to make substitutions. America as a whole should take a step forward and rid our tables of the squishy pumpkin pie and stuffing that makes me wonder what I am eating. If the ideals of thanksgiving are to appreciate what we have and give thanks to God for giving us just that, I would much rather thank him for the delicate lobster he puts on my plate, just as he did on that of the New England Pilgrims.