It's Thanksgiving in the USA today, a time when the people who would become Americans were at peace with the Red Indians. Although history would turn out to be very bloody and quite different from the night that the Pilgrim Fathers had dinner with the Natives, they had a moment where people reached across the racial, religious devide and actually shared a meal together.
With the exception of the turkeys that were eaten, I think Thanksgiving should always be remembered. Not only did people become friends, if only for a few moments in a history of over two centuries, people did something very unusual - they shared a meal with strangers.
Perhaps you might think I'm getting weepy in my old age but here is the fact - people reached accross the colour and relgion barrier by doing something that all people like and need to do - they eat. People as Lee once said, "Are more similar than disimilar." We all need to eat, sleep and shit. We all end up paying taxes and eventually we'll all die. However, since we have nothing better to do, we'll do everything we can to emphaises our differences with others.
We are uncannily similar and yet we don't want to concentrate on our similarities and come together. Human nature it seems, is depressingly prone to selfishness and violence. We are bombarded with daily messages of how we can be bigger, stronger and wealtheir than the next man.
But somehow on thanksgiving, you found two groups of people deciding that instead of hacking each other to bits to become bigger, stronger and wealtheir - they ended up sharing a meal together. It may not be much but given mankind's inability to get along, we should be thankful for the few moments when peace and common sense prevails.
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