Expatica Germany's editor confronts turkey, cranberry sauce and gratitude.

I'll admit I don't like turkey. It's boring. And I loathe turkey leftovers. I think cranberry sauce is overrated and my sweet potato dish courtesy of Gourmet magazine would scandalize most traditionalists.

No matter, I still love Thanksgiving. That is even if Thursday, for the fourth time, I won't be with family in the U.S. celebrating with an overdone bird. My cellist boyfriend will be away playing a concert because it is not a holiday in Germany. And so maybe I will go to an American friend's apartment, help with turkey I dislike (even though it will be cooked perfectly), and get stuffed on a meal that signifies nothing to me.

It certainly would be fun.

And a few weeks later, I will break my budget, invite my mostly German friends over and hold another 'Thanksgiving meal,' this time with homemade pasta, most likely, some scrumptious sauce and if I am feeling motivated, a decadent and silky French chocolate cake. They, like I, prefer such a meal.

Over the years, I come to realize that on Thanksgiving, it doesn't matter where you are, what you eat or even -- I might be shot for saying this -- who you are with on this most American of holidays.

I know many expatriates in Germany who love that traditional American meal because it heralds that ephemeral and indescribable feeling of home. Others say it imbues them with the spirit of generosity that harks back to the original tradition in our culture of the feast between the Pilgrims and Indians -- the generosity that leads to spontaneous invitations to strays. Some just like the food and fun.

To me, though, Thanksgiving is a mandate, one that gravy can't illicit. It makes me reflect. And sometime, it makes me ashamed.

We all live lives of want. It might be the new coat or that trip to Kenya. It might even be more significant things: a new love, a baby, a new career, a new body or a new spirit.

In essence, we spend a lot of time measuring our cup and finding it lacking, as a distorted version of the cliché goes.

I find that sad. And lately, I find everyone around me engaged in that activity (I am no exception sometimes), afflicted with the curse of want, and worse, of envy, and with it, relinquishing responsibility for one's existence.

It might sound trite but I take this holiday as a dictate to reevaluate, to measure what I have rather than what I don't. It's a great exercise actually. My list is long and I'll forgo it here. But sometimes, a pause to take inventory makes you realize how rich your life is, helps you look forward enthusiastically to the things to come and forces you to become that most rare of things -- thankful.

Interesting that we have to have a holiday to remind us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

21 November 2007

Copyright Expatica

Subject: Germany, Thanksgiving