Will you have a real Thanksgiving this year?  To answer that you have to think for a bit about what the first Thanksgiving was.   It was a group of First Nations people, celebrating with a group of new immigrants from a land far across the ocean.  Of course they did not think of themselves as immigrants, but as people who would soon steal the land from the people they were eating with.  In a sense those first Pilgrim settlers were the reality of our worst immigrant fears. But before that happened, it was a group of disparate peoples coming together to break bread.  Strangers from different cultures eating together in celebration.  So forget the later genocide, for a day, and think about, or try to actually have a meal with someone unfamiliar to you.  And no that does not include  your daughters new boyfriend or your son’s new girlfriend, or your daughter’s new girlfriend, or your son’s new boyfriend.  Ok, maybe it does.  Regardless, remember that the first Thanksgiving was one people celebrating with their new immigrant neighbors.  Try to do the same.

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017