Thanksgiving Tree

I began to write the following before Christmas 2012.  I completed it on January 3rd.  I have just today had the opportunity to add the pictures and post it!  

For Thanksgiving I created a “”Thanksgiving Tree”.  I purchased a clay pot, some heavier sheets of paper, and a few stones at the dollar store.  Allan got some branches from out back which I approved or disapproved for my little project.  (I did not want to purchase sticks/branches normally used for decorating.  I wanted something from outside our screened in porch, which is one of my favorite places in the world, and something I am thankful we have.)  He also found some Styrofoam from the garage, left over from who knows what.  I wanted to have at least 30 “something I’m thankful for ‘leaves’ “ on my tree, one for each day of November.  I put it next to my wooden Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.  I liked that because I love Don Quijote de la Mancha.  (Spelled it with an “x” in English; no idea why, now that I think of it.)

I liked the project and decided against taking my tree down.  So it stayed up during Christmas.  The other day I made the decision to leave it up throughout 2013; to try and add one ‘leaf’ each day.  There will not be room to add too many new ‘thankful leaves’ to the tree, of course.  So I've determined that I will put them around the tree, as if they have fallen off.  If I manage to do this I assume that by next November it will look as it should for the Fall of the year, a lot more leaves on the ground than on the tree. 

I guess the project appeals to me for several reasons.  I find it a good exercise for my psychological diet to pause and make a conscious decision to focus, even for a few short minutes, on the many things for which to be thankful.  Another motivation is my concern that Thanksgiving is being crowded out.  I do not know if I will see it in my lifetime, but I believe we are rapidly losing the importance of setting aside a day for families and friends to get together with the sole purpose of celebrating how blessed we are.  Given the fact that stores have, for the last two years opened on Thanksgiving Day in order to accommodate the Christmas shopping frenzy, to my way of thinking, illustrates, with sharp clarity, the meaning of irony.  I find the idea of Thanksgiving becoming a day of time constraints and one that feeds not only our materialism, but also our competitive nature, that desire to beat the other guy out, troubling.  “Let’s hurry up and eat; the stores open in two hours!” does nothing to feed and strengthen our personal relationships.  It does nothing to refresh our spirits, to stimulate us and lift us up.  By sharing our time and ourselves with one another we are inspired, invigorated, encouraged.  Rather than being nourished, we will, I think, be left hungering, not for physical food, but for that which is equally essential to our well-being.  By focusing on our monetary bank accounts on this one day, we are forgoing the opportunity to make far more valuable and precious deposits into our memory banks.   

I know what some would say.  They would say that memories of camping out or standing in a line for hours with family and/or friends will be something to look back on and remember as fun.  That might well be the case.  For myself, I do not understand the choice to do that which results in memories so limited in richness, so limited in the number of family members/friends who share the making of those memories. 

The first figures I researched indicated that at least $586 billion dollars would be spent for Christmas.  And that did NOT include the anticipated increase in online sales.  If I remember correctly, the online sales were expected to total over $14 billion dollars.  I have not rechecked the data.  Why?  I find it unnecessary.  If I assume even a huge margin of error, on my part, say 20%, the numbers are still mind boggling, are they not? 

I got to thinking about small children the world over, here at home, and abroad, who need food and medicines, just to survive.  If all of those of us who spend for Christmas were willing to give up just 1% of that holiday budget to care for children, just think what the dollar amount would be!  Even allowing me the substantial margin of error named above, the dollars that could shared is astounding!  And how little would be asked of us, just one penny of every dollar!

Let me go back to where I started, my Thanksgiving Tree.  I think in addition to keeping my tree up and trying every day to add a leaf representing something for which I am really thankful, I will try to back that action up with another.  I think I will set aside a penny for every dollar I spend on gifts this year.  And I will also set aside a penny for every dollar I spend on myself.  That way, regardless of where we go as a society with respect to Thanksgiving, I will be working to stay focused on what impact that should have on my personal life. 

In October, upon returning from my aunt’s funeral/memorial service, I wrote about a train ride I had taken with my sister’s grandchildren.  I titled it “Something Special For My Thanksgiving List”.  My brother-in-law has since then sent me a picture.  I’ll include it here.  It will be apparent why I immediately thought of adding the adventure to my Thanksgiving list!