Essays from West of 98: A Local Thanksgiving
What comes to your mind when you think of your ideal Thanksgiving? We all have different visions, but I’m guessing the common thread is of peace, relaxation, loved ones, and the like.
How does that compare to your actual, lived Thanksgiving experience? There may be some of the idyllic vision, but real life might also be stressful, busy, and expensive. It might be laced with feelings of grief and the anxieties of trying to do it all and trying to do “enough.” I have made no secret of my disdain for the pressures that our society places on families during the holiday season. The Thanksgiving season has been consumed by the sprawling commercial Christmas spectacle, but the season is long enough to place plenty of pressure on our people.
On Thanksgiving Day 1957, John Graves was in a canoe on the Brazos River, somewhere between Granbury and Glen Rose. He gave thanks over a meal of freshly-caught fried bass filets, a roasted widgeon duck that he shot earlier in the day and stuffed with prunes, beans, steamed brown rice, and biscuit bread. He paired it with coffee that he laced with whisky and honey. Graves recounts this scene near the end of “Goodbye to a River,” as he soaks in the sounds of nature and the cool air of November in North Texas. It’s a beautiful, pleasant scene. It also seems worlds apart from a “modern” holiday season. Must it stay that way, though?
In his seminal essay “The Work of Local Culture,” Wendell Berry analyzed the decline of healthy local communities and pointed, in part, to the nationalization of entertainment and advertising. We all sat in front of the same televisions, watched the same advertisements for the same products and services, and were sold the same image of how to be a successful American consumer. After all, the only way to be “happy” is to properly participate as a consumer in The Economy. Local culture and individual traditions that didn’t jive with the Madison Avenue ideal were little more than antiques from a bygone age. This essay was written in 1990. The internet, smartphones, and social media have certainly not improved the matter.
I am hardly a Luddite. I am typing this essay on a laptop computer and posting it to social media using my smartphone. However, it does not take a Luddite to tire of the never-ending battle of consumerism and chart a course towards actual pleasure in the holidays. There is no “right” way to celebrate Thanksgiving. I’d say the only standard is to be thankful for your blessings in whatever form that they exist. I have gorged myself on a disturbing level of food and I have celebrated with a quick meal in the middle of a field. Both were pleasurable in their own way.
As we give thanks and move forward into the holiday season, I look around Stamford and see a growing number of reasons to be thankful. I see a passionate community of people who care about each other, who are similar and different, virtuous and flawed, working to overcome their individual struggles and to support one another in time of need. I see potholes and vacant buildings, but I also see new businesses coming to town. I see new families building their lives here. I see cultural institutions being strengthened and restored. I see business owners, public employees, volunteers, and others working to improve the community every single day. Little by little, they are doing it!
If you are in Stamford this holiday season, take a look around. You’ll see positive changes and you’ll see that we have more work to do. Support our local businesses, organizations, and institutions who are doing the work to strengthen our local culture. If you are reading this elsewhere, do the same in your community.
John Graves’ Thanksgiving in 1957 resonates with me, because it is stripped of the consumerist sales pitches and is the image of a man and his dog celebrating some of the truly decent things in life. May we find our own way to do the same.
What are you thankful for this holiday season?
📷: Lauren Echols Decker
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and podcast. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to West of 98 wherever podcasts are found.