Random Thanksgiving Musings

Every year for as long as I can remember, my family has spent Thanksgiving morning watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. When I was littler, we would have strange pastries called butter braids for breakfast as we watched. They were composed of flaky crusts encircling fruit or cream cheese centers, topped with drizzles of frosting. And, although I never liked any of the fillings, I ate them gladly, because the frosting was delicious, and because it was tradition.

Nowadays, we eat cinnamon rolls and doughnuts for breakfast as we watch instead, and that's not the only thing that's changed. My childlike enjoyment in the parade has vanished. Either that, or the quality of the parade has steadily decreased (which is an entirely valid possibility). Whatever the case, I am now mostly bored by the endless stream of floats I've seen before ridden by boring pop stars lip-synching to tinny, auto-tuned, and horrifically generic songs, and the balloons..... they're big, and some of them are impressive, but I see nothing special in them. The past few years, including today, I've only stuck around to see Santa, the only part of the parade that for me has remained magical and majestic. He gets me into the Christmas mood and brightens up my day every year.

Now, here's an interesting fact about me: I stay up really late every night. Like, really late. It's hard to explain why. There are various reasons. The point is, being homeschooled, I can usually also sleep in late. But today I got up at 9 to watch the parade. And, after two and a half hours of unbelievably boring genericness, I was feeling tired. So I decided to close my eyes for a minute, assuming that my dad and sister would tell me when Santa showed up.

They didn't.

I slept through Santa.

I almost cried.

Thrice.

It wreaked havoc on my mood. All the holiday spirit I had amassed while watching the parade melted away in a second. I already hadn't really wanted to go to the family-and-friends face-stuffing party we were attending, and now I wanted nothing better than to just stay home. But I went, because I didn't really have a choice in the matter. For quite a while, I went through the motions, eating a little and participating in boring conversations (an exhausting exercise for us introverts even at the best of times).

And then, when we were all sitting around the table after dessert, something amazing happened.

I got into a fandom discussion with a friend of my mom's and a twenty-year-old guy whom I had never spoken to before.

We talked for I don't know how long, covering gobs of stuff: Doctor Who, Merlin, Star Trek. Much to my shock, I even discovered that they're both familiar with my primary fandom, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K), which I've always considered to be quite obscure (if you've never heard of it, you should go look it up right now) (and also RiffTrax, which is basically a revamping of it). The guy and my mom's friend briefly discussed Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I've never watched but might just have to now. We vainly tried to explain what we were talking about to my grandpa, who was thoroughly lost but still kind of trying to participate. I felt animated. I felt excited. I felt better than I'd felt all day.

I felt thankful.

I'll freely admit it; despite being a Christian and having been one all my life, I've had my moments of skepticism when reading stories of divine intervention and providence and God's hand guiding every moment of our lives. I mean, acting in the big things, sure, but in recent months I've tended to raise an eyebrow at the thought of God getting involved in minor, day-to-day events. But this has got me thinking: maybe it's all still true. Maybe God sends little sorrows and disappointments into our days because such things make the little happy discoveries and moments of rejuvenation feel all the more fulfilling.

If it is true, God certainly enjoys being unpredictable. If I had thought anyone was capable of making my day end well and giving me a few ounces of holiday cheer, I would never have guessed it would be my mom's college friend and the nerdy son of my grandparents' acquaintances.

So..... today, I am thankful for happy surprises.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

~Pearl Clayton