(IMAGE: by Gene Louis Gerome Ferris "The First Thanksgiving")
As I get ready to do the complete opposite of what everyone is going to be doing tomorrow ("Thanksgiving"), I wanted to take a moment and reflect on why it is that I don't really vibe with this holiday. I really feel that we are all being misled about historical origins of this holiday. We are fed images of this feast and celebration that supposedly unified the Native Americans and Europeans, but images like the one above are not reality. The reality is that the Euros really messed things up for our Native peoples and they did not at all have symbiotic relationships like they teach us in school. They brought disease and systematically exterminated the majority of the people that they encountered once they got here. They took and did not give. They committed many crimes against nature. I say all this to say that as the rest of Middle America(and most others) stuff their faces with the turkey carcasses and other hard or impossible to digest foods, I choose to fast (or abstain from consuming anything). My husband and I usually go hiking on this "Day of Mourning" and we have our own version of this Fall Ritual. We climb up to the highest point on our favorite hiking trail. We burn sage and sweet grass. We pray for the world and for our causes. Then we detoxify our bodies in preparation for the hibernation period or Winter. This year, we hope to plant a little seed and see it grow into the Spring/Summer. Even if we are only able to plant good intentions for next year, it will be worth the effort.
