It’s hard to imagine a national holiday that better exemplifies a country than Thanksgiving in America. At its worst, it’s a celebration of a suppressed history of racial oppression that revolves around eating too much, moving too little and denying a culture of violence even as we indulge in a sport that has been proven to cause brain damage.
Yet at its best, it’s an opportunity to gather with those people who give our life meaning and realize how lucky we are to live in a nation recognized throughout the world as an exemplar of prosperity, freedom, democracy and peace.
Me, I like Kramer. He is quirky, loud, uncouth and tactless. Yet he means well. Kramer helps himself to Jerry’s food and tools, but only because Jerry told him “what’s mine is yours” when they first met. He is brutally honest, kind-hearted and loyal to a fault. He is all that is good and bad in the stereotypical American citizen.
I like to look at Thanksgiving the way I look at Kramer. Let’s see it for all of its faults while embracing the good spirit of this holiday. And for these reasons, I still love Thanksgiving.