We usually go to my family’s farm for a huge two-family Thanksgiving pot luck. These two families have been celebrating Thanksgiving together for over 100 years. It’s canceled this year, for the first time since the first joint celebration.
This is the kind of celebration where people want to come. Just bring a dish or two or three, toss a folding table and some chairs in the car, and come on!
Kids bring their significant others. College students come and bring their friends. People bring those who would celebrate alone. Everyone is welcome.
Just not this year. It hurts. It’s so depressing that I won’t see my family or people who have become family. It has to be though, so that next year, we (hopefully) can hold it again and see everyone.
We’ll Zoom and Facetime and Microsoft Teams and Google whatever-they-call-it on Thanksgiving. It won’t be the same. Seeing someone on a screen isn’t the same as seeing them in person. I’m going to miss the hugs, the cries of “Hey there!” and “There you are!” and “I’ve missed you!”
But to protect the babies and the elders and the immunocompromised and all of those we love, we’ll make the sacrifice. It doesn’t make us heroes. We’re just people who love our family and friends and want to keep them safe and healthy.
If you can’t socially distance and it’s not a work requirement, stay home, please! To those for whom working over Thanksgiving is required, sending you hugs and much love. Stay safe!
Thank you for coming to my rant, um, un-TED talk!