As Thanksgiving rolls around, I think that somehow that tradition doesn’t really connect with me. I have a lot to be thankful for, but this holiday celebrates something that just doesn’t jive. Thanks for giving it to you, this means more to me, rather than thanks for you giving me something and we should celebrate that instead.
Yeah, it’s a long dispute about who should be thankful here and it goes way back to before our great-grandparents were born, when a kind gesture later expanded into a mistaken massive giveaway of just about everything we had.
Not that I’m not in favour of a holiday per se, but I wish that the idea behind the Thanksgiving tradition be adjusted to what actually it was meant to be in the first place – a grand thanks to the First Peoples of the lands, to have compassion to feed complete strangers so that they could survive this “harsh” new world many centuries ago. The spirit of collaboration and brethren kinship was touted as the way the world should be and much later, it became plasticized and commercialized, just like Christmas is carried out today.
Now we are programmed to view the turkey as a rare meal, dished out only a few times a year and with great respect and tradition. It involves the cooking and preparation of grand meals to feed lots of hungry people just before winter sets in.
Today, the turkey is harvested year-round like the chicken but kept in cryogenic suspended animation deep in the freezers before it hits the shelves and finally your dinner table in all its stuffed and basted glory. That is, if you are a good cook and are willing to start early in the morning and slave all day at a stove and counter. Thankfully, this only happens only on special occasions.
The turkey, having lived its life just to become mixed with cranberries, potatoes, carrots, peas, stuffing and gravy for your family, can become a weekly fare at home. Imagine, cooking a turkey to feed everyone for a day or two, depending on your tolerance for the bland tasting bird, for only a few dollars a serving.
Turkey stir-fry, turkey breast coated in your favourite flour and water blend, turkey club sandwiches, turkey drumsticks, deep-fried turkey, the list can go on forever. So theoretically, you could buy a turkey once a month and have it instead of chicken. The latter is much smaller and expensive and lasts only for a meal, whereas a turkey provides several meals and then its carcass ends up in a delicious soup.
Turkey should have its place next to the chicken on the shelves and rightfully so. Too bad we don’t have an abundance of wild turkey way up north, but we do have cranes. Recently, I was talking about eating swans when someone suggested I try roast crane. Apparently, it’s much tastier than goose, which is blasphemous thought. But my taste buds are now perking up and I just might shoot one to savour it.
I’m not sure if cranes are an endangered species. So, if I get arrested for shooting one and eating it, I’m sorry. But I should be thankful that I can harvest just about anything that’s edible, just like the days of old, when the wild turkey was a mainstay diet. I’m also thankful for the day off from work more than I am for celebrating some tradition that got us all stuffed.
However, in the spirit of giving, share that turkey with those less fortunate and don’t spare the gravy and cranberry sauce. Thanks for the giving!