Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday. Usually this is the part of the year where I begin to prepare for the winter. Foods are purchased, dark chocolate consumed, and I engage in some extremely personal form of artistic expression which is either photography or music. Since I don’t come from a large family, there was never any purpose to celebrating the holiday that much. My fondest memories of Thanksgiving include some Indiana Jones movie that happened to be playing on TV. We’d sit down and pretend that we were too busy to bother interacting with each other.
Most of my family is either vegan, vegetarian, or semi-vegetarian, so Turkey didn’t matter. We didn’t have many people over, so the food served was mostly food we’d have anyway. Cranberry sauce served as the only reminder that this in fact was a holiday.
Having said that, there are a few things I’d like people to look at differently. Perhaps it is impossible to exactly be ‘thankful’ for some of this stuff, but my goal here to help you realize that with every grey cloud there is a silver lining. Or that grey cloud could be a poorly kept silver cloud that hasn’t been polished for a while. Either way, it is important. Below are some things I think most people should at least try to enjoy or take part in to help the winter melt away.
1. Colds – A lot of people hate colds. I don’t blame them. They are dreadful things, forcing you to keep in coughs as you try to impress a significant other. But don’t look at them as all bad. Rather, take advantage of those little perks you get while being sick. A big bonus to these is the pass you get on not paying attention. Usually I tend to have my mind wander while someone is saying boring work-stuff. But with a cold, I’m allowed the benefit of the doubt to be spacey, something I often am regardless of having a cold or not. That sweet spot of being zoned out and the social acceptance of being zoned out while on various cold medications is one of the few pleasures you get out of sickness
2. Hibernation – Winter provides lots of animals with hibernating options. Bears get to say “Eh, this looks boring; I’ll be back in the spring.” I do the same thing. After Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties have passed, I say “See you later!” to the world and engage in ultra-personal endeavors. Also, I get to finish a book or two in the meantime and work on making myself vaguely more productive and creative once the spring/summer rolls around.
3. Musical Research – I guess this is what I do all year round. During the winter though there aren’t as many interesting releases. Most artists tend to save their music for almost any other part of the year. As a result I go back into discographies, busy figuring out this web of music I’m developing. How each artist is connected in this great blanket (bonus if you know this reference)?
4. Movies – From the few movie reviews I’ve done on here, it should be obvious to anyone that I consider movies to be foul. I don’t get them; I’m just not a movie person. So many of them follow such similar formats that I generally can’t give a damn. This ends up being doubly disappointing to me since I think of all the potentially great visual and storytelling aspects they could indulge but don’t. Whenever I listen to a song, I get an image in my head of what ought to accompany the said sounds. So I don’t understand why movie directors lack this capacity to engage me. Due to the winter, I can’t really go outside to bike or swim, so I’m stuck catching up on movies recommended to me years ago.
5. Ice Skating- This one is fairly new. As a kid, I never did this. Apparently one of my colleagues was a professional ice skater or something. So he kind of got me into it. Now this is one of the most therapeutic things I can imagine. The rhythm behind it eludes me, though each year I get just a little bit better. Skating in the Northeast is such a thrill anyway. Sorry those of you in the southern half of the globe.
Overall, think about what you are thankful for this holiday. What worked out/didn’t work out for you? Is there something that you can improve as we move towards the end of the year, something you wish you could do better? Do it, I believe in you. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!