Just a few of my thoughts

Thanksgiving is a cultural ritual Americans partake in every year. We prepare meals, watch a parade, eat, watch football, eat again, go shopping and eat some more.But how much do we really know about this holiday? Do we stick to the stories we were told in grade school or have we ever thought there’s more to the story — a story more intense than can be told to 8-year-olds?Before I delve into the difficult stuff, let’s start with some fun facts.
According to www.history.com, an estimated 38.4 million people traveled 50 miles or more from home during the 2009 holiday.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Minnesota is the top turkey producing state with a production of 45.5 million turkeys in 2009. The National Turkey Federation estimates that year 88 percent of Americans ate turkey at Thanksgiving. It the average weight of a turkey purchased is 15 pounds, that means more than 682 million pounds of Turkey were consumed in the U.S. in 2009. That’s a lot of poultry.
The first Macy’s parade was held in 1924 and Snoopy has appeared in the parade more times than any other character.
The Detroit Lions have played on Thanksgiving Day each year since 1934, except during war time.
And yes, tryptophan is real.
Now to the Pilgrims.First, they probably didn’t eat turkey. The only written account of any meal with the Native Americans recounted eating deer. No mention of our feathered friends.Another problem is that history seems to place all the fame on the pilgrims. Sometimes we forget that the Wampanoag Indians are the real heroes of this story.The pilgrims were starved, stealing from the Indians and scrapping for all they had. By the time the feast passed down as Thanksgiving occurred, there were only 52 colonists left on their settlement. The Mayflower originally set sail with 102 people.Squanto of the Pawtuxet tribe and the Wampanoag Indians had been treated terribly by earlier explorers, some enslaved and others killed by disease.But they came to help anyway and taught the pilgrims how to survive.While peace remained for a short while, eventually the gratitude disappeared and colonist continued to take and take and take and drove the Native Americans farther and farther away.We tend to forget that the pilgrims not only scavenged, or stole to put it more accurately, to survive but also considered cannibalism to survive the winter. We forget that the natives of the land were the ones who came to their rescue, teaching them planting and harvesting techniques.While a story of cannibalism, disease and war isn’t necessarily a pretty tale for young school students, we do need to remember that history is real and despite the measure taken to make it look “pretty,” sometimes it is far from it.This Thanksgiving, while sitting around our 690 million pounds of turkey, take time to thank God for the gifts of the year. It is something we should do every day and not just one day a year.But also, take time to do what those early Native Americans did. Help others. That may be one of the best ways to honor them.