A True American Thanksgiving

I would love to post some sentimental photograph of my grandmother in her younger days mixing up yams and pouring gravy over mashed potatoes. And I'd love to goosh over how thankful I am for my family and the love and support they offer and what a happy Thanksgiving it was yesterday.

But a happy and drama free Thanksgiving? That's just not American.

It started with my grandmother talking about the gays. Then my grandpa started in on the blacks and how it's unfair that if "one of them" kills "one of us" as gang initiation it's not a hate crime. Yeah, I'll let you think on that for a while. Oh! And let's not forget health care. I heard a lovely one-side conversation with "facts" pretty much generated from Fox News and a discussion about liberals which included that "them" and "us" language. Me being the "them."

I've been a vegetarian for almost two years and I decided this year I would not be forced to eat only side dishes. One person can eat only so much starches in one day. So I cooked my own tofurky, wrapped it up in a basket and brought it over, hoping my grandmother wouldn't kick me out the minute she smelled the soy beans. Soy beans are the fuel of liberals, after all. When I told my grandmother I was adopting a vegan lifestyle two years agoshe looked at me very seriously and said that it was a religion. An evil one. She's lightened up a little bit when I decided to eat dairy again. I'm pretty sure she thinks I only worship the devil sometimes now.

Everyone else tried the tofurky and actually liked it! Even my dad and Uncle Jim who are the biggest carnivores you'll ever meet, admitted it "wasn't bad." Uncle Jim followed that up with "but let's not go crazy here, nobody's converting today." Still, it felt like I had won a small victory. All that was left was to get Grandma to try a bite. It would be like she was telling me she loved me... for the first time (seriously). But she didn't and I had to sit through a lecture on how the liberal education system had brainwashed me into idealizing animals and that growing up on the farm they only ate meat soaked in lard and that if I'm half as healthy as she is now she'll be surprised. Yada yada yada.

The remainder of the evening was spent silent, on my part. On the way home I tried to find something encouraging about the situation. Two years ago, if she had done the same thing I would've been crushed, crying in the dark with a blanket over my head. This year though I almost felt empowered, but sad for HER. I realized that this woman has now idea what joy is and what it means to find joy in your life through your love of others. She's never going to have a true relationship with me, or anyone else in her life, because she doesn't know what unconditional love is.

So what am I thankful for? For the people in my life that love me despite (or because) of my hippy dippy, tofu eating, Obama voting ways.