Our Thanksgiving Day dinner menu this year is: turkey (Martha Stewart’s brine recipe), mash potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole (Trader Joe’s recipe), gravy, corn, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin pie and apple pie (with ice cream). It’s basic, yet fancy enough for us because we only eat these foods in this combination once a year. Each of these menu items have a unique scent and anyone who enjoys eating these foods would welcome their scents like a warm hug.
For years my friend Christy and I would laugh about doing things that were the opposite of being thoughtful. We would chat about people who didn’t care about others - wouldn’t it be so liberating to only think about ourselves? Whenever we shared stories that included someone being selfish we would say, “Let’s put that on the Un-thoughtful List.”
In full disclosure I was trying to decide between writing about National Fast Food Day and World Kindness Day. Believe it or not, after the 2020 election, I have been super weary about the concept of kindness. Half of America is so filled with hate that it would seem almost too ironic to write about kindness. Besides, fast food is such a great topic. The choice was hard.
During the Stay-at-Home order for Covid I thought that I would have all this extra time to read. I envisioned myself as one of those people who would curl up on the couch and read a book during my “down time.” Seven months later, I still do not have down time. When George Floyd died and all of America wanted justice, I knew this was a big issue but I didn’t know what to do to help. I knew one thing, throwing another book onto the pile on my nightstand in hopes to read it someday wasn’t going to work. Some of the books on my nightstand have been there for 2 years! In this case, I needed to learn about racism asap otherwise I wouldn’t understand the civil unrest that was happening all around me. I immediately loaded my Audible library with two books: White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo and How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.
