Friday Five: Thanksgiving Soon!

Friday Five: Thanksgiving Soon!

An old-fashioned American Thanksgiving!

Jan has posted a strange FF.  I am not sure what to make of it.  I guess it is because this is one of the first Thanksgivings I have had without the 'mulleygrubs'. 

The Cure

Lying around all day
with some strange new deep blue
weekend funk, I'm not really asleep
when my sister calls
to say she's just hung up
from talking with Aunt Bertha
who is 89 and ill but managing
to take care of Uncle Frank
who is completely bed ridden.
Aunt Bert says
it's snowing there in Arkansas,
on Catfish Lane, and she hasn't been
able to walk out to their mailbox.
She's been suffering
from a bad case of the mulleygrubs.
The cure for the mulleygrubs,
she tells my sister,
is to get up and bake a cake.
If that doesn't do it, put on a red dress.

--Ginger Andrews (from Hurricane Sisters)

So this Friday before Thanksgiving, think about Aunt Bert and how she'll celebrate Thanksgiving! And how about YOU?

1. What is your cure for the "mulleygrubs"?

'Holiday mulleygrubs' is so much the part of the pastor's life that I have been asked this many times.  It isn't just sadness.  It is a form of depression that affects a number of people in the community and my pastoral care schedule when I was 'in harness' would often double or triple.  For those who live in the 'dark states' the winter provides a hibernation mode and it often sneaks up on people.  It also something that I am very prone to.  Now that I am back in a sunny state, the endorphins seem to pumping pretty well and I haven't experienced it.  But one of the things that I did for myself was to avoid Malls and the happy-clappy phoniness of the Holiday season.  And the other is to do something for someone else.

2. Where will you be for Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving Day we will be at home.  T is working nights so she will be asleep.  My family is celebrating T'day on Friday at my nephew's place.  I guess I will grill a steak if I can get the grill to work for J, T and me.

3. What foods will be served? Which are traditional for your family?

I have no idea what will be served at my nephew's.  It will be turkey, dressing, etc.  But I don't know what kind of recipes will be served up.  I have offered to bring things but I haven't heard.  And the few times I have taken something it wasn't well received.  This year may be the last time I do T'giving with them for a while.  I would like to have T'giving at my house with a number of our friends who do not have family here in TX.  My house is not up to my family's 'standards'.  I have invited them but they do not come.

4. How do you feel about Thanksgiving as a holiday?

I love the idea of Thanksgiving but the reality in my family is not quite there.  But 'family' is not necessarily blood kin.  And my family has been the church for so long that it is hard to get back into the 'blood kin' world.  

 5. In this season of Thanksgiving, what are you grateful for?I

I am very thankful for our new home.  I am thankful for the parish I serve and the church in our new home.  I am thankful that the election is over and that we have a compassionate President.  I am thankful that my shoulder seems to be getting better and that we have begun to divest ourselves of much of the crap that we have moved all over the country for years.  I am grateful that we have found a doctor that seems to be providing the kind of care we need.  I am grateful for T and her ministration in our community.
BONUS: Describe Aunt Bert's Thanksgiving.

Aunt Bert will have a T'giving brought to her from 'Meals on Wheels'.  A couple from the church will come to visit them and bring them their dinner and stay and chat for a while.  Bert will sit in Frank's room reminded of all the Thanksgivings that have passed and be grateful for 'Meals on Wheels' and the quiet of the day knowing that she would not have had the energy to attend a family meal after all the care she has given Frank. Bert got a call from her niece. She may complain about how tired she is but she is really grieving that this will probably be the last Thanksgiving that she and Frank will have together.  She isn't afraid of his death.  She is afraid of the loneliness.  But she knows the cure.  She will bake a little cake and put on that red dress that Frank likes and they will feast in the quietness of the bedroom.