Days and days of Thankfulness

Comes now the cyclical Fambly ritual of "what WILL we do for holidays?" The topic of today's meditation in particular: Thanksgiving? Potluck? Brunch? With homeless people. Without homeless people (that we know of). With toddler more interested in tactile experience and gravity than in eating? Or without such a toddler?

RantWoman is penning this message with specific offer to help make something happen for Thanksgiving and seeking Light as to how others are led. RantWoman would be thrilled if a special team of 5-7 people could come together and Make Something Happen.

RantWoman left to her own preferences would probably opt for potluck meal but with some parameters different from the past. RantWoman would MAYBE think of early morning food if it were part of ensuring some homeless people have a place to be for the day but would not be happy with brunch alone. In particular,RantWoman kind of likes Thanksgiving worship while hungry. It makes the celebratory reflections more real.

As long as RantWoman is stating preferences a few more details.

--Plan for a POTLUCK. Do not overspecify. Bring two items you / your household likes. Trust that there will be plenty.

--If you are not planning to stay for the meal, do not worry about cooking a turkey or bringing food. Come for worship. That is enough. Likewise, if you really can live without worship but want to bring a whole clan to the meal,bless you, there is room for that too.

--Do worry about signups for set-up and cleanup. Have clear start and end times that take into account travel considerations such as bus and ferry schedules.

--Beloved elders who might be tempted to overdo about setups should be provided at least one pair of able young arms willing generously to accept supervision and be fetch and carry.

--The provide a place for homeless people to be concept might need just to be remembered. Homeless services have a different model than the self-managed SHARE program and RantWoman is unclear what invitation would even be appropriate. Also the 3 people with the strongest leading in the direction of holiday accompaniment for homeless people have moved away. Frankly, Friends also, it seemed to RantWoman, got a little spoiled: the SHARE group was always very eager to help with setup and cleanup; this unquestionably made the workload lighter for everyone else.

RantWoman offers the above reflections based on recent and less recent experiences of celebration at her meeting.

Last year was Brunch then worship. RantWoman remembers grumbling that if the committee planning things had asked the community, Friends might have rallied to do a potluck meal. RantWoman decided it was fine and important to try something new. Brunch was not terrible, and worship on Thanksgiving is always a gift. Brunch did not speak to the Rant Family. This is important because in the past Thanksgiving has been the one holiday a year where RantWoman tells the RantFamily that if they want to celebrate with her, they come to Meeting.

Other holidays have tended toward RantWoman arriving on time to RantMom's apartment, helping RantMom out with final prep, munching on crudite and generally having RantMom all aflutter about when Little Sister and her family will arrive. RantWoman would so much rather just go on a group ferry ride, but that is also not feasible.  Anyway, RantWoman does not remember what happened last year for the Rant Family but suspects it fell into RantMom's holiday pattern of "I must have my children over and feed them."

The previous year Meeting Thanksgiving potluck was, um, tense. No SHARE guests. The staff had just been told her position was discontinued. Food was plentiful. RantMom found plenty of people to talk to. But the whole exercise wanted to wrap up almost before Little Sister and family even showed up. RantWoman is not further commenting about Little Sister's family and the space / time continuum. Tardiness just contributed to the whole layer of tension. Irrepressible Nephew charmed everyone by singlehandedly moving a heavy table back downstairs after the meal, but RantWoman can absolutely understand not wanting a repeat of all of that.

Still RantWoman is both looking back and thinking of...

RantWoman remembers Thanksgivings when she was new to Meeting; Friends from Salmon Bay got invited. This was before South Seattle Friends Meeting existed. RantWoman remembers a relaxed feel except for some tension among vegetarians because of turkey.

Thinking of RantMom who has come most years since moving to Seattle: Both of RantMom's parents came from large families. RantMom is definitely used to having lots of people in small space. RantMom loves Thanksgiving potluck for the same reason RantWoman loves having RantMom at potluck: RantMom has LOTS of people to talk to. RantMom has lived in Seattle long enough that even if she just chats a little bit with people she knows from Meeting, her day is full.

Irrepressible Nephew has quite grown up. When he was either about 2 or about 3, he was definitely more into food as tactile experience + gravity than in actually eating anything. The result of these preferences was a glorious mess, the kind of mess that would send RantMom or anyone needing to worry about cleaning up carpet just around the bend. RantWoman just thought Oh fine, good thing linoleum is easy to clean up. Somewhere between that year and the year Nephew wanted to come to worship and his parents never made it, there was another small child into the same approach to food as Nephew.

In RantWoman's childhood holidays frequently had many hanger-on: college students, musicians, beloved elders. RantWoman has mostly felt the same level of warmth for Thanksgiving potlucks at Meeting.
RantWoman has scrawled such Light as is available above; RantWoman means it about offer to help if others would also appreciate a potluck after worship and is willing to offer some time and energy to the endeavor.

In Light and Faithfulness.

RantWoman