Thanksgiving 2020: Far From Home (Bonus Post!)

It’s Thanksgiving!

First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge the Wampanoag people – who still exist and have still held onto their culture after years of systemic erasure and genocide. This day is not the fairytale that it’s been painted as for the last 400 years. The Wampanoag and others experienced illness, war, slavery, etc at the hands of the colonizers and, yes, while the idea of Thanksgiving is great, let’s stop using it as a crutch to pretend that these things awful things didn’t happen to Native Americans.

That being said, Thanksgiving is more than somewhat bleak this year. With millions of people flying during the pandemic, there’s a subtle feeling of foreboding through it all. How are our Covid numbers going to look three or four weeks from now? What’s more, many others are spending Thanksgiving all by themselves this year, whether in intentional quarantine or simply because they live alone and are taking adequate precautions to keep themselves safe.

This year, I’m thankful for the fact that I won’t be spending Thanksgiving alone. I have two awesome roommates and we’re going to have a little Thanksgiving celebration for ourselves. I’m also thankful for my health. I don’t have Covid, nor have I ever had Covid. I hope I never do.

And, look, if you only have one thing you can think of this year that you’re thankful for, that’s great too. You don’t need a million things.

Let’s feast, get into a Turkey coma, and keep everyone in our thoughts. This year, it’s more important than ever to appreciate the little things.

Happy Thanksgiving.

xx Selma