digesting the holidays

I hope everyone had an enjoyable day off work, assuming you did have the day off work on Thursday. In the U.S., it was “Thanksgiving”, a holiday that makes me cringe.

Others have talked about the genocide that we are celebrating, I’ve talked a little about the turkeys who are killed, as well as the turkeys who are saved. I think most of that is all obvious stuff.

I dislike holidays, and that dislike grows more each year. Maybe I’m just not social enough to enjoy family gatherings. Whatever the reason, holidays are welcome only in that they are a day off work. The rest is simply something I need to expend energy to avoid, and thus is an annoyance.

This year, though, I took a five hour bus ride to visit a friend for a vegan feast. A vegan friend, and a motley crew of his vegan Food Not Bombs friends. We had faux turkey and cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and stuffing, sweet potatoes, lasagne and a million types of cookies, and a few different pies. I’m probably missing something.

It was good and fun, and we didn’t have to pretend that we were okay with a carcass on the table. One of the guys there had been told by his family that it would be disrespectful if he brought a tofurkey to the family gathering, something that blows my mind even though I can’t honestly say it surprises me.

There is usually something relaxing about being among people who share certain baseline ethics, and this was no exception. As a group, we were mostly incredibly different from each other, held together by that invisible super-glue of shared veganism.

And apparently an obsession with cookies.

What I enjoyed the most about my “holiday” weekend was tramping along abandoned train tracks,

taking in the awe-inspiring graffiti building, five pointz

laughing and arguing and having thoughtful discussions with people. Meeting someone who is a provider for my heroes, the Rock Doves!

In other words, I would have had just as good a time, maybe even better, without the focus on food.

Except that I eat all the time now, so it isn’t like I could have gone without food altogether.

I always circle back around to this though, that if we were able to break the connection between food and socializing, I’d enjoy my non-vegan friends and family a hell of a lot more.

And at the same time, all those moments of eating surrounded by non-vegan food is exactly what puts the Thanksgiving With the Turkeys (and the 300+ vegan dishes at a giant community potluck) and the dinner with my friend Rich and his vegan friends in such stark amazing relief.

Holidays are conflicted times for most of us, I think. I would have been happy enough with my original plan – to go on a long, possibly overnight, bike tour. I definitely am even happier that I took that 5 hour bus ride to be social.

Abandoned train tracks and graffiti art seems like the perfect celebration after all.

the morning bean