medically modernizers…

I will have one or two more entries posted here soon (I know Thanksgiving is nearly over… But I’ll try to have them published tomorrow!) about the meaning of today.

112505milesofsmiles
Thanksgiving During Every Meal
by Jeff Stiles

Earlier this week my brother Ben shot two deer on my parent’s farm in southwest Virginia, assuring the Eastbound members of my family that they will have enough venison to last throughout the winter. “It was raining this morning, and Ben got out to his tree-stand later in the day than he wanted,” explained my mom on the phone Monday morning. “He had just gotten to his spot, and all of a sudden three deer walked out into the field. He downed one with his first shot, and when another deer simply stood and looked at him he shot it too.”

I’ve eaten a wide variety of meats during my life—from the rabbit stew and venison of my youth to the jellyfish and chicken-feet I consumed while visiting communist China during my college years.

These days, other than an occasional sushi meal at the new Japanese restaurant in Dubuque, I’m content with the more, shall we say, “non-exotic varieties” of meat available. There are the beef and pork stews I make almost every week, the Chicken Kickers I like to order from Domino’s Pizza, and an occasional steak I’ll enjoy while dining out in a fine restaurant such as Timbers Supper Club.

Ever since my youth, you see, I’ve been taught to be content with anything that’s put on my dinner plate. As Luke 10:8 in the Bible says—Jot this down, parents—“Into whatever city you go and they receive you, eat the things that are set before you.”

I imagine that’s the view the Pilgrims had when they first came to this continent and landed at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. Only 46 of the original 102 people who sailed aboard the Mayflower had survived the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean a year earlier, yet the remaining colonists—along with 91 friendly Indians who had been helping them live off the land—decided to celebrate their first anniversary in the New World with a three-day feast of thanks to the Creator.

Although turkey is the main dish served at modern-day Thanksgiving dinners, the original Thanksgiving feast featured wild game such as ducks and geese.

In fact, the term “turkey” that was used by the Pilgrims in the 17th century included any sort of wild fowl—and it’s almost certain that the earliest English settlers also enjoyed venison during that first Thanksgiving!

Anyway, in 1863 President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving to God, and a Thanksgiving holiday has been proclaimed by every U.S. President since then.

My recent studies of the original Thanksgiving and the Puritans who were so influential in the formation of our American society caused me to ask other bloggers in cyberspace about their Thanksgiving plans this year, and the things they are most thankful for this November.

• “I’m thankful for a wonderful daughter, a wonderful job and wonderful friends,” I wrote. “This Thanksgiving, I plan to do something incredibly monumental for a single dad. I hope to cook a turkey with all the fixings . . . all by myself. Please pray that I don’t burn my house down!”

• “Let me know if you need any good recipes,” responded Sojourner in a Strange Land. “One of our traditional items to serve (along with a turkey of course, because we Southern folk know how to feast!) is a nice ham. Go buy one at the local supermarket, and if anything goes wrong with the turkey, voila!—you’ll still have ham!”

• “Fall fell hard on some this year—with all the hurricanes and tornados—and our house took a real beating from hail this past Wednesday night while our church sang hymns in the basement to pass the storm,” responded Joel Mark. “But still, we plan to have our best Thanksgiving ever this year. I am grateful for those who have given their all to preserve our liberty to communicate freely on matters of faith, culture, values and politics.”

• I’m not a very nice person, but offhand, I can’t think of anything nicer to do this Thanksgiving than to offer my thanks to God, to our church family, and to my own loved ones for their love, their generosity, and their unfailing support of my stumbling attempts to walk this Christian walk,” wrote Jim R.

• “God has truly blessed America with the best it has to offer to the world,” wrote Llama. “I will be thankful this year for the young men and women in U.S. military uniform who are bringing the basic rights to those that most need them in the world who could not never get them for themselves. All people deserve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as they see fit to enjoy them.”

“Oh, and by the way,” Llama continued, “knock yourself out with your planned Thanksgiving feast, Weekenderman, because there’s nothing like a good turkey to get in a thankful mood.

“And don’t worry about the house, but it might pay to get a really big fire extinguisher and make sure your daughter knows the emergency evacuation plan just in case!”

Hmmmm . . . maybe a nice Thanksgiving meal at a fine restaurant would be an even safer plan this year?

If you have any questions or comments for Jeff, he can be reached by email at jeffstiles@wcinet.com

ItÂ’s Thanksgiving again where we all gather around as family and friends and give thanks by eating dead turkey carcasses possibly infected with bird flu and stuffed with plenty of trans saturated fats that will surely clog our arteries and lead us to…

[This post is all sticky throughout Thanksgiving Day.]

The California Conservative is ‘California Cool’ because he just is. Speaking of which he has a brilliant post on the history of Thanksgiving, linking to a great video. Don’t miss it.