{"id":4712,"date":"2010-11-25T14:13:49","date_gmt":"2010-11-25T19:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/2010\/11\/thankfulness\/"},"modified":"2010-11-25T16:43:12","modified_gmt":"2010-11-25T21:43:12","slug":"thankfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/2010\/11\/thankfulness\/","title":{"rendered":"Thankfulness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/span>Thanksgiving holds an odd place in my mind. Like anyone exposed to modern culture, with its strong twist of Americana, I am aware of the holiday’s existence and many of its associated trappings. And yet I have never really paid much attention to it as an event. Of course, now that I have established myself on the western side of the Atlantic, there’s no chance of that this year. <\/p>\n

Despite the somewhat contentious historical roots of Thanksgiving, I do quite like the concept of taking a moment to navel-gaze about the better aspects of one’s life. We’re fairly melodramatic as a species, which means that we often end up paying more attention to the bad things in our imperfect world. But ‘imperfect’ does not mean ‘thoroughly horrible’*, and making sure that there’s at least one day in the year where tradition forces us to balance out our whinging tendencies seems like a good idea to me.<\/p>\n

Of course to fully embrace Thanksgiving, I myself need to list all of the things that I should be thankful for. Well, technically, I suppose I should also be stuffing my face with as much roast turkey as I can, watching some deviant approximation of rugby on the TV, and getting in an epic family argument. But I can start with the list. <\/p>\n