Thanksgiving is, possibly, America's most unique holiday. Not only is Thanksgiving an American holiday, it is in my opinion, America's holiday (and not only because other countries seem to have no idea what we are talking about when we mention it {in typical American fashion}). Upon asking my English friend to help me think of a title for this post, he replied with a sense of bafflement "What? That's that thing kinda like Christmas with the turkey, right?" But especially today, in this fast-food, super sized, highly processed, high fructose corn syrup obsessed time, what better way to celebrate the "discovery" of America than with a holiday dedicated to food?
Now even though I personally think Thanksgiving goes right along with Columbus Day in the crackpot of American holidays, I am able to recognize that Thanksgiving, and food in general, does a lot to hold America together. At every wedding, birth, death, graduation, or celebration, there is food. Food creates a common bond for people. Whether it is the awkwardness of having to attend a baby shower for someone you despise, or letting tears fall into your funeral hotdish, everyone congregates around the table holding the (sometimes not so-) delectables.
This culminates at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Although I don't know any family bearing any resemblance to the one in the Norman Rockwell picture above, almost every family comes together over the Thanksgiving table. And even though the American ideal tells us there must be the graying grandparents sitting at the head of the table, looking down upon their three children, two of whom are married with kids and one who just got engaged, it need not be. More likely grandma is drunk, grandpa is dead, daughter one is unhappily married to a flake with two snot nosed children, daughter two is dressed in black and son one just came out of the closet. But no matter what kind of family you have, food pulls you together over Thanksgiving. Whether it's a four course complete meal, or grocery store chicken and canned cranberry sauce, food holds this country together.
And really, who doesn't love mashed potatoes?