Thursday, November 15, 2012

Old-Fashioned Thanks


Thanksgiving Day has always consisted of at least these three elements: Family, Food and Fun. Although society today has a different definition of family; food now has it's own television channel; and fun has traded in board games for watching football; the holiday still reminds us to pause and thank God for the blessings he bestows upon us all year.  

I found a poem about Thanksgiving called "The Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving" which was written many years ago by Edgar Albert Guest, and couldn't help but wonder how shocked this author would be today. After all, he bemoaned his modern Thanksgiving during the 50's, an era now lauded as  "old-fashioned." 

This stanza stood out to me and I chuckled as I imagined him today watching his great grandkids all sitting around the table texting on their smart phones or playing their Nintendo DS games.

 "...it lives within a world itself and wants to be alone. It has its special pleasures, its circle, too, of friends...Pursuing what he likes the best in his particular way.

Things change in many ways, yet somehow also stay the same. 

I admit that I tend to be 'Old-Fashioned', yet not so much so that I'm willing to throw out my technology. Whether we have new gadgets, new recipes, or new family or friends, we all usually agree that what we still hold most dear are those things in our lives which were passed on from those who came before us.

My grand-parents are now gone, and of course Thanksgiving dinner is not the same without them. Every year I like to give special thanks for the wisdom and 'old fashioned' values they passed on to me.

The recipes I make are a compilation of my grandparents and other relatives who have gone on before. I smile and think about how I have a modern kitchen and yet the food, though more easily prepared, still holds ingredients tried and true from generations past. Some of the dishes are still served in Grandma's traditional tableware, also passed on from generations past. 

As the family gathers around to carve the turkey, like 'grandpa' used to do, we all quit texting, if but just for a moment, so that we may hold or fold hands in prayer, thanking the Lord for the blessing of each other. Then of course we rush off to watch football while we eat turkey and pumpkin pie. (Now how old-fashioned is that?)



Edgar Albert Guest, 1881-1959

(click title above to read poem)


“Thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings."                                                                          ~J. Robert Moskin

1 comment:

  1. Technology makes our life more than modern. We keep talking through different kinds of social network and lose the real face-to-face dialogue. I feel bad though I took mass media classes which taught me that we need to catch up all the brand-new techs in order not to fall behind. Can i just yell out that i enjoy reading paper far more than ebook? And also wiring and communicating though mails? Maybe those are too "old" to keep. Instant and fast makes us impetuous.

    Like you said in your post, Chinese new year is more and more likely to be a modern one. Lots of traditions float away.

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