In the process of transitioning from Tumblr to Wordpress, I neglected to close out my weeks worth of posts on things for which I am thankful. I came up empty on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I thought I’d backdate a couple of entries for that purpose.
Mom had the table all set from the start. Though we were missing two in Chicago, it was nice to have substantially all the family around the table for Turkey Day.
CLICK THROUGH FOR THE LAST TWO THINGS FOR WHICH I AM THANKFUL
For the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I’m going to pick 7 things for which I am thankful and post them on here.
Day Five, Monday, November 23, 2009:
Being carnivorous (and Mom’s home cooking).
I have a vegan sister-in-law. It is painful and I really feel bad for my brother and his appetite sometimes. Often, he’ll do dinner with me or my dad just so he can have a normal meal with real, bloody flesh included.
I eat salads and enjoy them. I love lettuce and veggies and fruit. But I really love steak, chicken, fish, lamb and especially turkey. This is the best food time of the year. Luscious, well prepared turkey by Mom, complete with southern style stuffing and Greek stuffing (which has some meat in it), with gravy and cranberry and yams and all sorts of goodness all cooked with some sort of turkey stock included. We preface it often with crab claw pasta.
Ultimately, it’s like going to Smith and Wollenski’s on roids. A delightful and coma inducing debauchery of cuisine… and I revel in it every time.
What I do not, however, revel in is the below PETA ad. Try as you might, you’re not gonna kill my Turkey Day buzz.
For the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I’m going to pick 7 things for which I am thankful and post them on here.
Day Four, Sunday, November 22, 2009:
Enough open-mindedness to know when I’m being closed-minded.
I generally consider myself an empathetic person. I will put myself in others’ shoes and try to understand their point of view. Sometimes I can’t get there and I decide that the leaps they are taking are irrational and non-sensical. I try to stay keenly aware of whether I’m actually working out my thought process or jumping to conclusions.
I like to think I’m self-aware enough to know when I’m doing the former or the latter, and for that I am thankful. There are far too many people in the world who lack that same open-mindedness, be it in the political, theistic or social spheres. And that, my friends, is something I’ve methodically worked out to determine.
Knowing when you’re wrong is important… though knowing when your counterpart is wrong is truly golden. Being honest with yourself, though, is really of prime importance.
For the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I’m going to pick 7 things for which I am thankful and post them on here.
Day Three, Saturday, November 21, 2009:
Having kind and good hearted friends.
Today I’m off in Houston celebrating the wedding of two friends who fit that description well.
I don’t often see my friends as regularly as I’d like — what with being married to the job and addicted to going to the gym — but I don’t value their friendship any less. Some are old, some are new, some are forgotten and waiting to be rediscovered, but all friendships have value and Thanksgiving is as good a time as any to be reminded of that.
For the week leading up to Thanksgiving, I’m going to pick 7 things for which I am thankful and post them on here.
Day Two, Friday, November 20, 2009:
Having thick enough skin to root for Vanderbilt
I’d be lying to myself if I said I didn’t have a sports-watching problem. Its a full-on addiction that used to involve the Yankees, Knicks and Giants and now has matured to the Commodores in NCAA football, basketball and baseball.
The only problem is that, while I take great joy in the teams’ accomplishments and the integrity with which they are run, Vanderbilt fans are also the Job of the sports world. There is no way in which God has not seen fit to test us. Put another way is the true Vandy sports fan motto: “The Commodores: Snatching Defeat from the Jaw of Victory.”
Even now, mired in the midst of perhaps the most disappointing football season in history (based on expectations and results), it’s hard to complain because you’re used to it as a Vandy fan. You learn to deal with the humiliation and gameday negativity in football, knowing you can look forward to another sport for another season.
I’ve allowed my expectations of a Final Four this year and an Omaha sometime in the next two to perhaps get too grand, but what can I say… we went to a bowl last year making ‘Dore fans newly optimistic. When it all comes crashing down and we get Siennnnnnna’ed in the first round as a three seed or upset hosting a regional by another Alan F’ng Oakes boob, I’ll have thick enough skin to deal with it.
Or I can always do what Vandy fans do upon SEC defeats and just point to the graduation rates and say that that’s what really matters.
The ad (which can be viewed in context in a screencap after the jump) discusses giving goats to poor folks in Zimbabwe. Let’s deconstruct:
The good:
The programs of livestock donations do work well and are very good ways to give.
Ads like this should work well at Thanksgiving.
The contextually funny:
The largest slice in the pie graph for What You’re Really Having For Thanksgivingis“Guilt”… and initially seeing this ad struck me as guilt-instilling. Perfect placement.
The just bad:
The ad quotes a boy with “My very own goat saved the family from hunger.” Nice, right? Sure, until they try to sap it up a bit too much by calling him an eleven year old orphan. Sure, the family survived the hunger, by dang that dysentery. Felled me many a time on the Oregon Trail.
The ad says the goat is for the boy. I really think he ought to start with something smaller to prove he can be responsible enough. Maybe a fern, or a hamster, if he remembers to water the fern.
Finally, Animal Aid (a watchdog group) actually discourages donating animals to communities where it may be difficult to provide for and feed the animals. Zimbabwe is one such country. Once the breadbasket of Africa, mismanagement and international problems involving Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF regime have led to hyper inflation and the agricultural and overall collapse of the Zimbabwean economy.
Also, we really don’t know what’s going on between humans and goats in Zimbabwe. According to this Aussie report, it’s apparently the same thing that goes on between humans and livestock in parts of Kentucky.
Anyways, it’s a good thing to be charitable in any holiday season. Although they also have projects in Zimbabwe, Heifer International is the worldwide leader in this type of giving. And their ads aren’t clearly dramatizations.
The ad quotes a boy with “My very own goat saved the family from hunger.” Nice, right? Sure, until they try to sap it up a bit too much by calling him an eleven year old orphan. Sure, the family survived the hunger, by dang that dysentery. Felled me many a time on the Oregon Trail.