…but the way we talk with one another about Thanksgiving can be quite different from how we unconsciously live it. There I go again, mentioning the unconscious in public…
We tell each other that we open our doors to welcome people, as in Trains, Planes and Automobiles. But let me tell you, as a not too recent immigrant, Thanksgiving from the outside is one of the most exclusive and alienating events, if not THE most, I’ve ever experienced.
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread. (Pascal)
I kept hinting to my friends in Boulder. “I’ll be on my own at Thanksgiving…” I had just arrived in Colorado, which for an English chap was like Mister Clean in Apocalypse Now arriving in Vietnam: the light and space really put the zap on my head.
They would shrug and go, “Okay…”
Was I asking wrong? It was bewildering. I guess I wasn’t asking. “Can I come to your Thanksgiving” isn’t something one thinks of as polite.
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