Would Ye Like a Turkey Leg?

In a skit on this past Saturday's Saturday Night Live, Martha Stewart (as played by the adorable Ana Gasteyer) suggested that this year, after the evens of the past couple of months, Thanksgiving should be combined with elements of the Fourth of July to form a flag-waving feast of epic proportions. "Martha" then gave tips for how to incorporate patriotism into the festivities (example: cooking a bald eagle instead of a turkey) and ended the scene by dancing about in a bikini top to a Britney Spears tune (don't ask).

I bring up this skit, which was an amusing island in the great, expansive sea of suck that SNL has become, because it does bring up a valid point. This year's Thanksgiving will be unlike any other we've seen. Unlike the Thanksgiving after Pearl Harbor, when the memory of the attack was nearly a year old, we're just a couple of months along from the events of September 11. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the downed airliner in Pennsylvania (which everybody seems to forget--everybody except the friends and families of those who died, that is) are still fresh wounds on our collective psyche. So we might be a bit more serious at the dinner tables this year.

We might also take into consideration what this holiday is meant for: remembering all that for which we should be grateful. And despite the terrible events of the fall of 2001, there are some things in my life for which I would like to give thanks: I'm thankful for my friends--like JB, Andy, Junebug, Praxx, Red Secretary, Embee in Da Burgh and the Fluffies in Michigan--who remind me regularly that I am loved and worth loving;

I'm thankful that my friends and family are relatively safe and relatively healthy this year;

I'm thankful for my employers: yeah, I don't always like my job (who the fuck does?), but at least I still have a job, unlike many of my comrades;

I'm thankful for my cats, Lottie and Ms. Christopher, who sit beside my head at six every morning and chorus their disapproval at the empty state of their bowl in the kitchen and somehow manage to make this activity cute and endearing instead of maddening and enraging;

I'm thankful for this Web site, which helps to keep me sane...well, sort of;

And, finally, I'm thankful for being alive. As long as I have a pulse, life has a chance to get better.

Have a happy and safe Turkey Day. Or, if you're Ana Gasteyer as Martha Stewart, have a happy and safe Steaming Bald Eagle Day. And save some cranberry sauce for me, won't you?