Green - 12/3/22

    In experiencing the modern American holidays, I feel conflicted on how we celebrate. Though this time of year brings me great joy and nostalgia, I cannot help but feel as though what we celebrate is insincere. I have a goal to live as self-sustaining as possible for myself and my family, and feel a deep connection to food and creating meals from the ground up. In traveling home to Stafford, VA, where half of the Thanksgiving meal has been in a freezer for the past week and the other half will stressfully be picked up the day before at our local Walmart, the meaning becomes less of gratitude and humbleness and more of “how much food can we buy before the store runs out”. We have been handed so much so frequently that petty competitions over the last turkey and the strange social customs of a strip mall are what Thanksgiving is remembered by. 

    Even while home, I rushed in the 3 days I visited to move all of my belongings into plastic bins (from Walmart) so that my sister could take and redecorate my room. I have never felt more disconnected from the holiday. Thanksgiving is an excuse to drive a lot, to stop doing homework for a night or two, to pack up things for when you inevitably move out, and to prepare for Christmas as soon as possible before, God forbid, you fall behind. Everything exists in such a nauseating rush that the holidays feel more like deadlines to X off the calendar. Is it possible to return to what this time of year meant originally? We are so choked on physical belongings and status that gratitude is a thing of the holidays past.

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