Thanksgiving discussions

Last week I posted about family that maybe you don't want to talk to, but it's not always like that. 

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2024/11/setting-boundaries-before-thanksgiving.html

What if you will be spending time this week with people with whom you agree on core issues? Maybe you are all feeling a little down about things to come.

There is some comfort in commiseration, but that shouldn't be a stopping place. Making plans can be a huge mental boost, and this weekend can be a great time for some planning.

Maybe it makes sense to update communication plans. There could be discussions about how everyone would fare if there was no electricity or water for two weeks, or if prices are going to rise horribly, what things everyone could stock up on now.

It doesn't all have to be emergency preparedness; perhaps you will decide to have everyone read a resistance-related book and come together to discuss it after.

I will list possible books below. Even if they all sound good, start with just one.

If you aren't sure that your family is like-minded, but you don't think they are terrible, perhaps the way to test the waters is talking about the first Thanksgiving. For real.

http://www.thepeoplespaths.net/history/ThanksgivingDayMassacre.htm 

(The best thing I have seen on that is Kathy Kerner's "The Thanksgiving Epidemic", but I have only see it in the book American Indian Stereotypes in the World of Children, by Arlene Hirschfelder, Paulette Fairbanks Molin, and Yvonne Wakim, and it can be a little hard to find.)

Thanksgiving ushers in the holiday season, and there may often be talks of gifts. You may want to discuss holding back on the capitalism, but also having an honest discussion about needs and wants. 

If what you need most is help paying bills, to stock on on food items, or get your tires replaced... that requires some open and honest discussion and probably some cooperation. 

Those can be discussions we have with friends too. Maybe you actually can't do anything financially for each other, except remove the expectation of coming up with trinkets or gift boxes, but expressing caring and taking down veneers can be a beautiful expression of love.

Love is a gift.

Maybe your family group is not really in financial need, but there are people who are. Family service projects can strengthen bonds and create warm memories.

Don't rule out having a joint excursion where everyone updates their vaccines while it is still legal.

I have been blogging extra a lot, and that probably isn't over. 

For this week it is okay to take a pause. Enjoy the connections that you have and envision things that -- within your power -- can be made better.

As much as there is outside of out control, that is not all there is.

Book suggestions:

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi 

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACTUP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman 

Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway 

I promise there is not a single one of these that I won't write about more.