Giving Thanks

I’m pretty fond of traditions. My Thanksgiving menu stays the same year after year—turkey, stuffing, gravy, rolls, salad. Cranberry sauce that invariably remains forgotten, the can unopened. (Yes. Canned cranberry sauce. Stop judging me.) Pies to fill any remaining room in your appetite. Football on TV once you’re too stuffed to move; friends and family to share it all with. Followed by more pie.

As my kids have grown, married their beloveds and begun to grow their own families, we have begun a new holiday tradition—Sume Thanksgiving.

Sume Thanksgiving happens on the Friday right after Thanksgiving. The menu is the same as it would have been on Thursday Thanksgiving—only with a smaller turkey and fewer pounds of potatoes needing peeling. On Sume Thanksgiving, we are slightly less gluttonous, having also indulged at various other Thanksgiving locations. Fortunately, there is still plenty of football to be had, so that indulgence remains the same.

Sume Thanksgiving has given me appreciation for traditions old and blessings new; that change can be good. Yes. I said it. Change can be good.

Or maybe—what I mean to say is that from change—even the kind of change that we don’t choose—a blessing can grow.

This year, Sume Thanksgiving is full of Blessings, we have much to be thankful for. Even amid our celebrating, though, I’m aware of those whose hearts are currently broken. My prayer is for peace, for grace, and for Light to shine even in the darkness.

I am thankful for YOU, Gentle Reader, and for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.

May we all have blessings to count.

Unintended Consequences

Hunting Season has drawn to a close and I’m happy to report that there is one less elk menacing my landscape. He has gone to his just reward---and I shall savor his memory with the appropriate amount of mashed potatoes and gravy.

At 7am this morning his absence was noticeable---it takes far less time for 21 elk to discern that I’m shoeing them out of my yard and to vacate the premises than it did for twenty-TWO elk. I am, of course, being sarcastically facetious with just an after-note of irony, because NO, there are STILL a far too many elk in my yard.

The remaining elk seem oblivious to the fact that I was providing aid and comfort to their Enemies in the form of convenient parking, free coffee and updated scouting reports in real time to any hunters in my neck of the woods. Plant enough flowers, and it seems elk will forgive you any transgression. “Roses? For me?! You shouldn’t have!”

I’ve spent a lot of time considering how to deal with my problem elk. I’ve considered scrapping my plans to build a fence and instead build a giant walk-in freezer under the apple tree, but the Doubting Thomas’s among my friends point out that elk like to kick and stomp and would make kindling out of my freezer in short order. So out with the freezer, back in with the fence.

I can’t figure out WHAT to do to inspire fear and loathing in my nemesis. They seem immune to all manner of harassment; finding me, at best, mildly amusing. “Oh look, she’s frothing at the mouth and waving a hammer. Try these petunias, the striped ones are delicious.” Providing both dinner and a show is not the affect I was aiming for. Unintended consequences indeed.

Brought to You by the Letter F

It’s Thanksgiving week---that traditional time of year when we gather together and give thanks for the many blessings in our lives. Facebook has been full of folks listing their blessings over the last month; a daily roster of gratitude and it’s been fun to read their ongoing lists. At the Sume house we usually go with the Big Four; family, friends, football and food.

I am also thankful for punctuation. It’s not often you get to write back to back sentences that both use the semi-colon and I am not advocating that you try this at home. But just in case I may have once, accidently, bet someone I could do it---well, there you have it. Consecutive Use of the Semi-colon in a Non-Academic Setting. That’ll be five bucks.

Where was I? Oh yes, the Big Four.

This year Sume Family Thanksgiving will be on Friday—also a Favorite F word—and will include my best friend from high school, who has agreed to take time off from working on that World Peace Thing to come celebrate with us. For those of you that fear your hard earned tax dollars are all being wasted or misspent in the Other Washington, let me assure you that the program she helps implement is one we can all take pride in supporting. It is very much along the lines of teaching people to fish rather than just handing out free fish.

Football is always a big part of our Thanksgiving ritual--although I think this year any game would be a little anti-climactic after last week’s Seahawks victory. That game had a little bit of everyone’s favorites; long rushes, impressive defense, some Jimmy Graham, a little Baldwin...a quarterback that looked more like the DangeRuss guy we know and love, who can not only scramble and throw a TD pass but is capable of catching one as well!

 

Family, friends and football...Which brings us, finally, to food. As I sit down to enjoy our feast---right before I usually get back up to add just a wee bit more gravy—I’m taking a moment to reflect, to rejoice and to remember those less fortunate. If, like me, you’ve forgotten to give to your local food bank before this holiday, it’s not too late. Donations after Thanksgiving are also needed.

I know what I can do with that extra five bucks...

Strange Bedfellows

     We live in interesting times, that’s for sure. As we head towards November, two Big Important Issues are weighing heavily on nearly everyone’s minds---it was THREE Big Important Issues but the recent frost has ended one of the reasons I was lying awake at night, unable to sleep. The change in weather has mercifully put an end to Zucchini Season, and I no longer have to sleep with one eye open, ever vigilant against pranksters dumping wheelbarrow loads of zucchini on my front steps.

Now we are down to two Big Important Issues: Hunting Season and the Presidential Elections. You might be asking yourself what these two, seemingly unrelated, events both have in common. I noticed that as each draws closer the tension surrounding the participants ramps up---Buck Fever, Ballot Fervor---both tend to put a crazy gleam in the eye, cause one to talk excessively about treasured beliefs that often have no basis in fact, say things that are obviously gross exaggerations and generally just be obnoxious as all get out. And that’s just Buck (or Bull) Fever. Ballot Fervor can be even worse.

Ballot Fervor seems to be generating a lot of fear this year. Everywhere I look---well, just Facebook actually, gotta fact check myself here--- I see people in the grip of fear. And I have to remind myself that “perfect love casts out all fear.”

I believe in the GOODNESS of people. I REFUSE to give into fear. Regardless of the outcome of the election---I believe in America, in my fellow Americans, and my neighbors...I believe that Love is stronger than hate, that people can hold a different opinion from mine, and "still be good people", that fear should not rule or divide us.

No matter what, we are Americans---more importantly we are all humans. We WILL work together, because the ties that bond us together are GREATER than those that separate us. “...And the Greatest of these is Love.”

So to those of you with Ballot Fervor, I wish you Perfect Peace.

To those of you with Buck Fever, I wish for you Perfect Aim. 

And gravy. 

Lots and lots of gravy.