thanks for thanksgiving

as i have a lot in my life to be thankful for, God has blessed me tremendously, i have to say that this past thanksgiving was nearly the most severely unthankworthy holiday i've had. ALMOST. with that being said, i want to take this time to thank the people whose efforts made it a worthwhile thanksgiving: my aunt vera whom i love dearly and my cousin carlos who has never failed in his capacity to be cheerful. it was a thanksgiving that will be remembered not because of it's grandiosity but because of it's being the worst ever, only second to the thanksgiving i spent away from home, in iowa. that is not to say that it was a bad thanksgiving, and neither was my worst thanksgiving. but, it's the expectations of thanksgiving that set me up for such a disappointment, and i was indeed thoroughly disappointed.

i am a medical student, and as such, i have to spend the vast majority (over 99% for those of you who don't know what 'vast' means) of the year away from and out of contact with my family. it's a big deal, but hey, there are some rewards to look forward to. so when a major holiday comes around i expect that i'll get to spend time with all the people i love, gathered conveniently in one place, as it has always been, year after year, and as it should always be. this year, oh how was i so sorely deceived. it was thanksgiving. the time of year when my 4 aunts (and maybe the fifth) along with my mom take the time to show off their culinary talents in, each to her own specialty, synergistically combining a meal so ravishingly delectable as to start wars over. so imagine my heartbreak when i've been looking forward to this meal since the last 3rd thursday in november, only to discover that said meal is not going to take place. it's akin to the trojan war with no achilles or the middle east with no oil. who the hell even wants to hear about such a thing? no one, i assure you.

one week before thanksgiving was supposed to happen, i was informed that there would be a family gathering and there would a coming together of cuisines. yet one day before the grand repast of all repasts, i come to find out that plans had all crumbled. who was to blame could only be surmised through speculation. it's a moot point. besides the sorrow of missing such a reunion, my ultimate grief stems from the fact that my family could even allow such an event to take place. my mom is getting old, and so are my aunts. 20 years is a long time, it's a generation's worth of time, and i now i realize in that span of time that all the kids in the family that were there when i first moved to north carolina are now adults. yet, we as the next generation have not taken the roles in organization of the family that my mom and aunts should have passed on to us. did they drop the baton, or did we just not take the hand-off? interesting question, but what's more important is where we go from here. we, as the next generation, can not let family fail. we can not allow our family to fall apart, to become so many separate entities. we have to take up the banner of unity and fraternity and instill in the next generation the love that we all felt when we were growing up. this past thanksgiving was a slap in the face, waking me up to a world that was not here yesterday. it's a challenge. i just hope we're up to it.