Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving morning, I rushed to the supermarket for a quick last minute shop of forgotten items. Paper napkins and candles, for example. As I browsed through the aisles, there was a person next to me speaking loudly on her cellphone.

"Frickin' hell, I can't believe Thanksgiving time has come around atgain. I might just die, having to spend the entire weekend with the family." As you can imagine, I was shocked. But also instantly hooked. Actually, mostly I was just hooked. The person on the other end of the phone presumably uttered clucks of sympathy, for then my woman was grumbling again. "I can't believe they created a holiday forcing the entire family to spend time together. Just frickin' so irritating."

The sentiment was so incongruous with the goodness of Thanksgiving, and the excitement of a long-weekend, that I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. I was tempted to stick with her, I must concede, and see how the rest of her weekend transpired. But I had guests of my own, and things to get done, so I rounded the corner and continued my hurried shop.

In the next aisle I passed by two boys in their early twenties, two roommates doing their weekly shop, I quickly surmised. As I passed, I heard one say to the other, "I've never been more unenthused about anything more than this weekend. You can't imagine how boring it is to spend an entire four days with the family. It kills me."

Crikey, I thought to myself, as I quickly picked up what I needed and headed for the front desk. What's with all the Thanksgiving scrooges.

But I quickly forgot about it as the girl at the checkout started ringing up my items.

"Working on Thanksgiving?" I asked her sympathetically. "I hope you at least end your shift in time to be home for dinner?"

"Oh gosh, I always volunteer to work on Thanksgiving!" she responded with a laungh. "My family's mental, I'm happy to be out of the house on Thanksgiving day."

And all of a sudden, if I hadn't been before, I was especially thankful for the people with whom we sharing our giving of thanks.