Thanksgiving may be the only holiday in America where many of us become, if just for the day, math majors as we try to compute how many hours how large a turkey needs to be in the oven at how many degrees so that it can feed a houseful of family and friends we've invited to join us for dinner. And let's not forget how many side dishes and who's bringing what--all important elements on our national Day of Thankfulness.
No matter how rough times have been leading up to this week, and for some of they sure have been tough, we still make that extra effort to put a smile on a care-worn face and to enjoy the warmth of home and hearth.
Let's face it, for a lot of us those smiles have been in short supply over this past year despite efforts to the contrary and local successes we should all celebrate. Sometimes it's just easy to mourn what we miss than to cheer what we have. And we have enough examples of that suggesting it's hard to argue about it. We've all seen local businesses fade and close and watched neighbors move away in search of something more than we have right here, right now. And for those of us still here, there's a little more doing with a little less than we remember from the year before.
Yeah, it's weird in Washington as well as in Hartford, but when hasn't it been weird? There are big newspaper headlines about deficits, public posturing and unbridled partisanship while here at home, we whisper and worry about the cost and the price of living where we choose to live and wait for a winter that has yet to arrive.
Maybe it's the cold snap in the weather as part of the change of the seasons or maybe it's just fatigue with one another on our part, but there's a bit more bite in our disagreements over policy and politics, and probably not something we want to bring with us to wherever we are having our holiday table.
So much for dark thoughts on dark days. There's also light among the shadows, as Norwich Free Academy hosts New London High School tomorrow morning at ten with two old football rivals renewing their adversarial acquaintanceship and by game's end, we can be sure some one's Thanksgiving is getting off on the right foot, even if it has turf toe.
The Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce has a Holiday Bazaar, on Saturday morning starting at nine over at the Holiday Inn on Laura Boulevard which is a great way to mark Small Business Saturday and also get a head start on your gift shopping.
And (of course) this Saturday afternoon at one it's the Winterfest Parade starting at Chelsea Parade wending its way down Broadway and then Broad Street before concluding in the heart of downtown Norwich, Franklin Square. A celebration of everyone here in Norwich created and supported by friends and neighbors who want us to enjoy ourselves. So easy to say and sometimes, so hard to do.
Ready or not, the holidays are here and as we gather family and friends closer to celebrate, and hopefully in the rush and crush of events we can remember strangers are friends we haven't yet met as we give one another hope when we celebrate Thanksgiving.
-bill kenny
No comments:
Post a Comment