Thanksgiving: A day to give thanks and eat too much, maybe watch some football, and be with family. But, about that last part. If you have a mixed-politics family, you may have noticed that there was just a big election. You may, in fact, have just spent the day with ones you love but don't agree with ... and in the age of Trump, those disagreements are broader and cut deeper than maybe ever before. Add in an election with a big Democratic win in the House and Republican gains in the Senate, while the Trump administration is still keeping children separated from their families and just excused the brutal murder of a journalist, and oh, boy. Things may have gotten messy.
Take those big disagreements about big things, world-shaping things that get to the base of what we believe in, and combine them with the stressful circumstances of "this is a holiday and you will enjoy it, dammit" and "let's get five times as many people as usual into this house and then cook a meal much bigger than any of us cook on a regular basis." They might be your family whom you love, but for real? When you're dodging each other fighting for the last burner and nearly getting stabbed when someone turns from the counter to the sink too quickly? Tempers will be on edge even before you get to the attempted rapist on the Supreme Court.
Or was your Thanksgiving cut short or cancelled by someone you wanted to celebrate with having to work early on Black Friday, or even on Thanksgiving itself? (Assuming that if you yourself are working those hours, you're not reading this post.)
So what are your frustrations tonight? What, despite your immense gratitude for all the good things in your life, just drove you up a wall today? Was it your conservative relatives? The lumpy gravy? The football on the television while you were trying to have quality family time? The fact that the football game on the television didn't come out the way you wanted?
None of these things have to mean that you aren't thankful for all the good things in your life, but having things to be thankful for doesn't obliterate the pressure-cooker irritations of the holidays. Surely there's something—let it fly.