Turkey of a Day

Thanksgiving... a day of family and the sharing of a bounteous table. But mostly it's the family. Something like 62 million turkeys will sacrifice their lives to bring us together around the feast, so that we can glutonize and sit around in the glowing aftermath, feeling warm and fed and more than a little sleepy. It is in this sated state that we transfer that feeling onto family, once more reinforcing that annual stimulus/response pairing. Except this year.

This year I got sick in the days before Thanksgiving. This morning, albeit reluctantly, my family drove off to visit extended family in my absence. (This was necessary as my wife's grandmother is in a weakened state and would be very vulnerable to my virus.) They are having a wonderful time (phone call), and I am feeling a little lonely. In my almost 47 years I have never spent a Thanksgiving alone. The feeling I'm having makes me wonder: "What about the people who always spend the holidays alone?"

For me, I know that they'll be back and that I was missed. But what about those who aren't missed? who don't have anyone coming back? who look both backward and forward to loneliness during holiday times. Sometimes these are people with friends and career and all that, but when the holiday comes, and all the friends are with their families, the weight of true loneliness oppresses them. That's when thoughts of "Who really cares about me? Who would care if I were gone?" That's when we, their friends, come in. During this most trying time of the calendar, we must find ways to support those of our friends and make them feel a part of the world of family.

Thanksgiving is not a day of turkey and dressing and pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving is a day of reinforcing our connection to humanity and to family. Connect with someone today and expand your family.