Another Tofurkey Under my Wing

This phrase doesn't get old to me like it might to you, so "Happy Tofurkey Day!". I do not use this pun to rub it in your face that you eat turkey and I do not. I couldn't care less about your eating habits (and hopefully the feeling is mutual). I simply love punny, funny phrases. For example, I just saw the 3-D version of A Christmas Carol and was momentarily confused when Jim Carrey (Scrooge) and that ghost went to his old boss Fezziwig's party. Fezziwig? I was so certain it was Fozziwig since I'd seen the Muppet version so many times and, since I'm practically illiterate, there's no way I would have read the actual Dickens classic...that kind of play-on-words stuff.

But back to the designated National Day of Giving Thanks on a Thursday. There are a lot of "rulebooks" we all wish we could follow--the "____-for Dummies" variety, diet books, "how-to-become-a-millionaire-in-one-easy-step" books, travel guidebooks, dating advice books...the list goes on but I will cut myself off. I am no Bubba and this ain't All the Forrest Gump That's Fit to Print here. If any one of you has purchased one of these books, followed its steps, and seen the result said book predicted, I will eat my hat! I mean, there is a reason these books appear year after year, decade after decade. The packaging and phrasology may be different, but the basic content is usually the same. We--most of us--humans are constantly on the lookout for the easy way to a predictable end. And us WASPs are especially concerned with the "right" way to get there...anywhere. If we could only see the steps written down and then follow them, then all would be right with the universe again.

"What is she getting at?" you are asking yourself. "It's Thanksgiving (on the west coast still, at least)...for crying in a bucket! Stay on topic here, Suz!" If you're waiting for continuity or some linearality (again, new word for a new world), get in line and bring your chair and Snuggie 'cause it's gonna be a while and winter is approaching. What I'm getting at has to do with my Thanksgiving in particular and the way I chose to live it today. Since I am a total admitted Facebook status update junkie, I was especially interested today to read the "I'm thankful for..." variety of updates today. They varied from one friend who was planning his Uncle's funeral to another who was enjoying wine and food with family to another who was upset that her favorite Thanksgiving food was missing this year. Every person was living his or her life in his or her world, which is how it should be--how it must be. Some stepped out of themselves and thanked our military and asked us to remember those brave men and women. Some even spent the week being thankful for something each day. Like a lot of things in life, though, it is much easier to be thankful on paper (cyber paper) than to feel it in your heart and act on it...but like I learned a while ago, sometimes you've gotta fake it 'till you make it.

Today I subscribed to this showbiz-esque motto. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a total fraud all day. For me it was more like a "decide not to deride". I woke up and realized that my Widow Behavior Handbook was still missing...or, rather, had never been written, and that I was going to have to wing it again! In no way am I trying to appear glib here. There's nothing funny to write about this stuff. There is simply useful and not useful, and it's all trial-and-error work, which means maybe I should start writing a series of "Trial-and-Error___for Dummies".

My trial today included decisions about how I was going to behave when I woke up. #1: I decided I would try to laugh and not cry. #2: I decided to cook with my sister and mom and not sit in a corner thinking about where I was last year (I think about it anyway...see above about "faking it"). #3: I chose to be thankful for what was in front of my face and the possibilities for my future. It would be been too easy to fall into the past, which is different to me than remembering and honoring the past. Was the result an error? Hey, The Suz is not concerned with results, here...she practices yoga, remember.

And, thankfully for this Thanksgiving Day, that is All the Suz that's Fit to Gobble.