Thanksgiving 2020
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. When I was little, I moved it up the holiday rank list because my birthday often fell during the break. My siblings complained that it was unfair that I got more attention from our visiting relatives, and I reveled in it. The Wednesday evening before our feast, we would wait impatiently for our cousins to make the trip from Logan Airport to Concord. If you had ever traveled in and out of Boston before the ‘big dig,’ you would know that the traffic was horrendous, and the unpredictable weather rarely did anyone any favors. Eventually, our cousins would arrive, dropped off by our aunt and uncle who would retreat to the Colonial Inn, a historic hotel that reputedly had a ghost lurking on the second floor.
The traditions of the day, from the menu to the walk around Walden Pond, rarely changed. Our table, carefully set by my mother the night before, appeared like something out of a Currier and Ives catalog—and our coffee mugs even had pictures of the houses of the famous Concord authors, Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, and Longfellow. Like many people, we overate, laughed a lot, and shared stories about what had happened since we last saw each other.
Last week, I prerecorded a welcome for our upcoming virtual Grandparents Day. Standing outside the Gamble Gym, I shared a few thoughts about the day and what I hoped they had seen during their visit. Simultaneously talking about something that hadn’t happened yet, during a period when the time feels like it has stopped, tested my sense of reality, yet was also profoundly bittersweet. I know how much this day means to our grandparents and our students. For many, it is part of the ritual that marks the beginning of the Thanksgiving celebration. Ironically, Zoom makes it possible for more grandparents to experience their grandchildren's world and not just hear about it.
Traditions, resilient and honed over generations, will always offer us comfort even during times of uncertainty. Admittedly, how we gather this year will look markedly different for most of us. And yet, we will gather. We will overeat, laugh, and share stories, and we will never forget this historical moment when we stayed apart so we could protect each other, and we created new ways to be close.
Happy Thanksgiving.
JWB
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The traditions of the day, from the menu to the walk around Walden Pond, rarely changed. Our table, carefully set by my mother the night before, appeared like something out of a Currier and Ives catalog—and our coffee mugs even had pictures of the houses of the famous Concord authors, Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, and Longfellow. Like many people, we overate, laughed a lot, and shared stories about what had happened since we last saw each other.
Last week, I prerecorded a welcome for our upcoming virtual Grandparents Day. Standing outside the Gamble Gym, I shared a few thoughts about the day and what I hoped they had seen during their visit. Simultaneously talking about something that hadn’t happened yet, during a period when the time feels like it has stopped, tested my sense of reality, yet was also profoundly bittersweet. I know how much this day means to our grandparents and our students. For many, it is part of the ritual that marks the beginning of the Thanksgiving celebration. Ironically, Zoom makes it possible for more grandparents to experience their grandchildren's world and not just hear about it.
Traditions, resilient and honed over generations, will always offer us comfort even during times of uncertainty. Admittedly, how we gather this year will look markedly different for most of us. And yet, we will gather. We will overeat, laugh, and share stories, and we will never forget this historical moment when we stayed apart so we could protect each other, and we created new ways to be close.
Happy Thanksgiving.
JWB
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