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Opinion Thursday: On Thanksgiving Day

It's Opinion Thursday! The November 28, 2013 prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  is
Thanksgiving. Do you live in the US and celebrate it? What does it represent to you today versus what it might have represented in the Holiday's infancy?
Do you live outside the US and don't care about Thanksgiving is? Give us your thoughts.

On Thanksgiving Day
people in the U.S.A.
count their blessing,
pray or say
"Thank you for..."

When I was growing up, Thanksgiving Day was for family getting together, saying grace, eating a turkey, watching television, or going outside to play. Thanksgiving was a time of gratitude, sharing your blessing with the less fortunate (even if those less fortunate were only family members), stuffing yourself with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes (at least two kinds and one kind with gravy), salad (at least three kinds), and pie (at least two or three kinds). Thanksgiving Day was for tradition and, for me, it is still a time for practicing tradition (even though some of those traditions have changed over the years and for gratitude.

On this Thanksgiving Day
I am alone
for the first time
in 66 years,
but I still practice
one of the traditions
Mom and I began
a few years ago.

I am not sure when Mom and I began the tradition of eating pumpkin pie with whipped cream, or its equivalent, for breakfast while watching the morning news. This morning, I warmed over some coffee in the microwave and cut myself a piece of pumpkin pie. I put a whipped cream equivalent on it (probably too much) and then I took my food into the living room, turned on the television, and watched the morning news. I did not expect to do this today, but I am glad I did because I saw President Obama pardoning Popcorn (the national Thanksgiving turkey) and commanders in Afghanistan serving the troops Thanksgiving dinner.

It is nice to know, that despite the sacrilege of stores beginning their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day, tradition is still alive and practiced in the United Sates of America. I am staying home today, I am not going to attend pre-Black Friday sales. There are a few things I did not get when I went shopping yesterday, I will wait until tomorrow to purchase them. I know that my single protest will do nothing to stop stores from starting their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day, but they can damn well do it without my help and approval.

On Thanksgiving Day
we are supposed to be grateful
for what we have
instead of trampling other human beings
to increase a merchants
bottom line.

Quote of the Day: "Black Friday: Because only in America, people trample others for sales exactly one day after being thankful for what they already have." - Unknown