I didn't post, because I was on the road with my daughter, Ma'ayan, visiting friends for the holiday. The friends happen to live in Las Vegas, and since I'd never been there in my life (incredible as that may sound), we decided to sample life on The Strip including a couple of the famous Las Vegas shows.
At one of the latter, Olivia Newton-John's Summer Nights show at the Flamingo, we were seated at a table with a Canadian gentleman and got to talking with him before the show. Of course, Thanksgiving is a holiday unique to the USA; Canadians do not celebrate it along with us. Our tablemate was curious about the American custom of travelling home to celebrate it with family. Is it considered an important imperative? Canadians do likewise on Christmas; do Americans also do it then?
I told him that, as we're Jewish, we just let Christmas go by quietly. But my impression regarding fellow Americans who are not Jewish is that Thanksgiving is more for extended family, while Christmas is more for travelling (to someplace warm, unless you're a fanatic Coloradoan who insist on heading to the slopes for Christmas skiing).
(By the way, I did resist the instinct to make a joke about Jews eating Chinese food on Christmas, and therefore open that chestnut. Although it worked well for Elena Kagan at her confirmation hearing for US Supreme Court Justice, our Canadian tablemate was an ethnic Chinese and I didn't want to risk inadvertently insulting him somehow. After all, in addition to sharing a table with us, he was also a guest in our country...)
Thanksgiving is generally considered a 'secular' holiday in every way, one that can bridge the many gaps that divide Americans. Personally, I'm not sure that has been the case for a long time. The last time I celebrated it with American expats in Australia, someone (in this case, the evening's host) chose to explain the holiday to the non-Americans at the table with the revisionist, we shared the Indians' turkey, then we committed genocide against them rap. But these alternative histories, and people's advocacy of them at Thanksgiving table notwithstanding, the holiday has always been considered a time to put aside various ideologies and just enjoy one another's company while reveling in G-d's graciousness. This year, however, Lefty sore losers have been instructed repeatedly by the ideologue political leaders to refuse to share fellowship with any of those evil Trump voters whose poor choice denied Hillary Clinton the Presidency which she so richly deserved. A number of prominent Conservative talk show hosts have dedicated time in the weeks since the election to the topic of helping their listeners navigate this potential problem.
I decided to approach it head-on. Looking around the table where we were so graciously hosted, I referred to the issue and then said: "Just to clear the air...there aren't any f**king Democrats at this table, are there?"
(It was meant as a joke, offered knowing that the family with whom we were sharing the meal were pure red.)
Jokes aside, it is unfortunate that Thanksgiving has become parochialized over time, first with revisionist narratives and then with political hard feelings. It truly is, at the end of the day, a holiday whose message we all need - from which we can all profit.
And that message is...e pluribus, unim. That in our diversity we can find oneness. That the uniqueness of each individual should not be a stumbling block to our finding common groundd. And that, finding common ground, we should celebrate it.
I'm guessing that it will be a while before I'm in the USA for Thanksgiving again. But you can guess that I'll be combing the stores in Israel for all the ingredients for the meal. (How to make a pareve green bean casserole? I'll be experimenting with that one...) And tuning up the ukulele to play and sing 'Alice's Restaurant.' And enjoying a meal in the shadow of G-d's blessings with friends and family, American expats or not.
And now, I must make last-minute preparations for my trip to Israel. I fly to Newark tomorrow morning, and from there to Ben Gurion on Tuesday afternoon. I'll arrive in Israel, G-d willing, on Wednesday morning. I hope to be awake enough to post some thoughts soon afterward!
No comments:
Post a Comment