Thanksgiving
I hope everyone out there in blogland had a nice Thanksgiving. I assume that most people who read blogs have access to a computer and therefore are not living under a bridge or in someone's doorway.
Normally, my wife's parents, 90 and 86, begin their winter stay with us beginning in November, and the holidays are largely oriented around them. This year, though, they aren't arriving here until after Christmas, so we decided to do something different for Thanksgiving.
Our local non-denominational community church opens their multi-use room for a free all-you-can-eat Thanksgiving dinner. The cool thing about it is, while they hope to feed a lot of homeless and elderly, the dinner is literally open to anyone. My wife, son and I went down to help out. We served food, carried trays for those who needed help, talked to people, helped them find seats, and stayed behind at the end to help clean up.
It was quite an experience, especially enlightening for our teenage son.
We served very young people, some with children of their own, who were obviously either homeless or in very poor circumstances. There were older people who otherwise would have spent the day alone. My son marveled at the guy in shorts who sported a prosthetic leg - not the kind that are molded to look like flesh, but a stainless steel device that looked like it came off the Terminator. At one point a man stood up and launched into a sermon, invoking us to thank Jesus for the blessings of abundance, and then reminding us that Jesus was a vegetarian, and would not approve of eating turkey. He sat down when it became obvious that nobody was paying him any attention.
I found myself having to examine my own feelings as a younger guy went through the line again and again, and a young woman with rings in her lips, nose and eyebrows filled a styrofoam box with mashed potatoes and another with turkey, for her and her boyfriend to eat later. My initial impulse was to mentally deride them for being greedy and taking more than they deserve. Which made me wonder - who am I to decide who deserves how much? Does being the recipient of good fortune make me deserve more? There's a good chance that these people hadn't had a decent hot meal for a long time, and may not again. And there was plenty of food, so why should anyone care?
As it was, those of us on the serving line encouraged everyone to come back for more, go tell your friends, take a box for later. When it was over, there were still five or six cooked turkeys left, and volunteers to take everything to a nearby homeless encampment.
Driving to work this morning I saw a man at the busiest intersection waving a sign - "LOVE ONE ANOTHER" - and I flashed him the peace sign as I went by.
2:12:53 PM 
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