Thank goodness that despite all the technology that caters to consumerism, and the incessant encroachment of Christmas shopping, no one has yet figured out how to successfully commercialize Thanksgiving.
So it still arrives peacefully, and can be anticipated patiently.
It's true that many stores will open next Thursday to gain a turkey leg up on Black Friday, but a number of retail chains are reversing that trend. Among the Forbes list of 52 retailers whose doors will remain closed on Thanksgiving are Dillard's, Sam's Club, Lowe's, Tractor Supply, Barnes & Noble and Academy Sports.
It's ultimately a day of many faces, foods and customs for a nation whose people number more than 310 million, and whose Thanksgiving activities are equally numerous and varied. Here are a few variants on how next Thursday will shape up across America.
• Thanksgathering
Homecomings are a hallmark of this uniquely American holiday, and this year is predicted to be one of the busiest for travel in a decade.
Poems galore have paid homage to the nature of gathering together on Thanksgiving, but none outshine the pen of John Greenleaf Whittier's depiction written 170 years ago in "The Pumpkin" of the "pilgrim and guest" coming home from all directions:
"When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored;
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before ..."
Extended families will be reuniting joyously everywhere, and may all do so safely.
• Thanksgorging
The horn of plenty is more than symbolic when it comes to Thanksgiving tables, most of which will be heavily laden with calorie-bonanza fare.
The American Farm Bureau Federation annually calculates the average cost of a turkey dinner for 10 with all the fixins, and this year it's right at $50. That's another thing we can all thank our farmers and agriculture industry for: fast-food affordability for fine dining at home.
• Thanksgunning
Duck season starts Saturday, which is fitting since waterfowl were generally preferred by the Pilgrims over turkeys. Deer season is already underway, and venison would have been the centerpiece of the first Thanksgiving feast, courtesy of the Wampanoag Indians in attendance.
A brisk morning hunt for many Arkansans next Thursday will whet the appetite for the afternoon or evening meal. And few things push the Black Friday frenzy from one's mind than watching the sun rise over a flooded field circled by mallards.
• Thanksgaming
It's called a pigskin, but footballs are really more roasted-turkey colored. And they will be flying more furiously than any turkey drop across HDTV screens in fans' homes everywhere next Thursday.
The Detroit Lions started the Thanksgiving Day game tradition, and they've taken the field every holiday since 1934--which is also the year Mickey Mouse made his balloon debut at the Macy's parade.
• Thanksgrieving
Empty chairs around the table are a part of life, and the pensive, prayerful nature of the holiday inspires memorial moments and remembrances.
A timeless tribute is Robert Frost's "My November Guest," which begins like this: "My Sorrow, when she's here with me, thinks these dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be ..."
• Thanksglittering
A growing practice is the decoration for Christmas over the holiday weekend, and it's becoming a tradition in more and more homes to deck the halls prior to Thursday in order to have a calmer, more enjoyable Thanksgiving.
• Thanksgrousing
Every quadrennial, sour grapes can wind up working their way into the festive menu, and this year may feature an above-average harvest. Make a concerted effort to toss them out with the bird innards.
• Thanksliving
"A thankful heart," declared Roman orator Marcus Cicero, "is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues."
In a nation so richly blessed, we all have so much in life to be thankful for, and our traditions surrounding the holiday are expressions and practices in that regard.
One such tradition I heard about involves family members writing down what they're thankful for on small slips of paper, which are then baked inside crescent rolls in fortune-cookie style. At dinner, the notes are read aloud and everybody tries to guess who wrote them.
If you have an interesting, inspiring or long-standing Thanksgiving tradition in your family you'd like to share, email me at [email protected] or mail it to the paper. In next Friday's column I'll serve them up as dessert.
Correction: Perhaps dazed by the combination of late-night election exhaustion and its stunning outcome, in last week's column I managed to unofficially re-christen New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize recipient Paul Krugman.
While "Jack" is one of the broader nicknames (it often serves in place of "John," "Jacob," "Jackson," even "Jaclyn" and, in a famous example, of "Clive Staples" as in C.S. Lewis), I can find no precedence among onomastic annals of it as an acceptable substitution for "Paul."
My sage editor Brenda Looper theorized that I subconsciously cross-bred Jack Klugman with Paul Krugman, which she said "would be scary, indeed!"
I apologize for the error.
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Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.
Editorial on 11/18/2016