Thanksgiving Indeed
To live as we do is to be fortunate beyond the wildest hopes of so many people who live in this world. By a happy accident of birth we live in North America, although I've no doubt there are places in Europe, in the near and the far East where people are fortunate enough to live in a manner to which humans easily become accustomed. North America is the place I know best, although I've had the experience of living in Japan and can attest to their high standard of living, second to none.
We wake up on the Thanksgiving week-end in comfortable beds set in comfortable houses. We are assured of warmth, of interior rooms which do not confine us, of a choice of foods beyond the wildest dreams of so many who live in this world. Have a shower, go downstairs and prepare a breakfast, say for example: orange juice, a half melon, banana, french toast, sausages, coffee, tea. Decide to go for a walk in nearby woods to enjoy the fall colours, the aromas of oncoming winter.
Come back to your home, and admire the gardens surrounding your house, still bright with colour. Begin cleaning up those parts of the garden which you can, without sacrificing those still-blooming beauties. Relish the crispness of the day, the pleasure of working your body at the tasks at hand. Take a few photographs so you will remember what your garden looked like; view them in the grip of winter.
Decide you'll make a garden vegetable soup with fresh-baked bread for dinner. Start with preparing the bread dough; include some thyme and grated Parmesan cheese. You'll top this bread with olive oil, feta cheese, tomatoes from your garden, fresh oregano leaves and a grating of mozzarella cheese to cover everything. You've softened the lima beans, split peas and lentils overnight. Brown a jalapeno pepper, garlic cloves, onion, and add to them a yellow tomato and a red one, chopped, until they render down. That's when you make a gentle choux, then add filtered water and the softened beans and let it simmer, to fill the house with its budding aromas. A half-hour before serving, add chopped celery, carrots, squash, and sweet potato. Tear some fresh basil leaves into the bowls before ladling the soup out. Serve fresh raspberries and plain yogourt for dessert. Good fare for a briskly cold fall day.
Next morning you can bake a pecan-pumpkin pie, prepare a turkey, forget stuffing. Make a dough for cheese croissants instead. Do some oven-baked tiny potatoes, cauliflower, carmelized onion, cut-up corn on the cob. Prepare a tangy olive-oil and lemon-juice-laced mix of diced baby carrots, grape tomatoes, Vidalia onion and celery. Don't forget the cranberry sauce you've already prepared.
Did I forget to mention? While you were laying in bed first thing in the morning, you listened to the news about the dreadful death toll in the tens of thousands in Pakistan as a result of the earthquake which also affected India and Afghanistan...the deaths were fewer there, as the epicentre was in Kashmir. How about the monsoon rains in south-east Asia, and the many drownings and emergencies there? How about the ongoing persecution and killings in Darfur? And let's not forget starvation in Tanzania and elsewhere in Africa. Oh sure, there's also the newly-emerging internecine warfare in the Palestinian Territories, a bit of a break from the terror bombings in Israel. Right, there's the deadly animosity and the deaths accompanying that between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Iraq.
Thanksgiving, yes. Definitely thanksgiving.
We know with some fair degree of certainty that armed militias will not invade our home and drive us out, away, or murder us. We know that we have a society built on order and good will, the rule of law and respect for all. We know that should we fall ill we have access to a well educated medical community, to area hospitals well equipped to heal our ills.
We live in a society - although far from perfect - which concerns itself with the welfare of those among us who live less fortunate lives. We do make attemps to ensure that our municipal governments, our provincial governments and our federal government take some steps to assist those in need. We send donations as individuals to our local food banks, to our hospital foundations, to our disease-prevention-and-treatment charities, to our local institutions like Shepherds of Good Hope and The Salvation Army. It is not enough, it is never enough, but we are aware, and we are trying.
posted by Pieface @ Monday, October 10, 2005
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