About Thanksgiving and Rivers and Woods

Thanksgiving. I just finished writing about the holiday and for the second time, watched my article vanish. Somewhere out there there is my neat story about the holiday. I am not sure if it is Google or the prompt that keeps asking me to try the "new page"(that is what happened the last time when I said I would try). It blipped out into the nether sphere.

Oh well.

I feel like Scrooge at Christmas time. My leg is propped up on a cushion and I am not driving to visit family. Bummer. My doctor wrapped it beautifully in an ace bandage and it felt better so I think I will follow his advice and chill.

I do miss family. I miss the connecting and conversation. Phone calls and facebook just are not the same. There is an odyssey quality to "over the river and through the woods". Sometimes we would put a log on the Franklin stove and sit back with peppermint cocoa and feel the holiday seep into our bones. Sitting in the living room, in a house set into the hemlocks and rocks with an address known as "Lime Kiln" or "Bear Cave Road", somehow says it all. It's about history and the journey.

One of the articles on TV today was about an octopus that had left his ocean lair for open air to look for lunch on land. I watched fascinated as he went to dinner "over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's House". I know many of us are also travelling this week in order to greet family and friends and share in this harvest tradition. I guess, looking at this octopus as he felt he had to seek broader hunting options, that we have something in common.

This is the time of year to be celebrating joy and family, of course. The media is full of the usual obligatory story line of giveaways and reunions. We keep tissues at the ready. But come on now, what about the shenanigans in Washington? Once again the Social Security program issue is up for grabs. I am not a Tea Party follower but we have to get a grip on our finances and it should not come at seniors' expense.

Senior centers feature donations of day old bread, damaged fruits and vegetables, foodstuffs that markets are not able to merchandise and there is a scramble as seniors pick over damaged goods to stretch limited pensions. Many seniors have a history that dates back to the Great Depression where salvage skills meant survival.

When Social Security was first designed, it coincided with the growth and lobbying of evolving corporations who were defensive of social oriented programs that might cut into their profits.

I am reminded of the woman who personally thanked President Roosevelt after Social Security was first implemented and she finally had eye glasses and coal for her furnace.

Today, our society is fractured, in most households both mothers and fathers work, and most families today are not able to care for the elderly. Social Security has become a lifeline.

The Protest Wall Street movement has spread all over the world as the basic needs for food and shelter have become global priorities. If we are not going to address these issues now, there is going to be a bigger catastrophy than global warming as social unrest floods our world.

I think back to Thanksgivings where we did celebrate harvest. That was the time when pigs became sausage, beef was canned, frozen or dried into jerky, vegetables were salted down or put in the root cellar to be enjoyed in the winter months. The jars of fruit and pickles were jewels in the basement as precious as a savings account. But now your Thanksgiving basket is likely to be store-bought bread, canned cranberry sauce, canned veggies, and the ubiquitous frozen turkey. That takes money and therefore becomes that perfect example of what has happened to our society.

With all the resources this country has, we should not let Congress lynch seniors on a limb of expediency while most of our country's resources are held by an elite one percent.

I am dedicating my comments today to my family and grandchildren, my friends, and especially to my mom and all those loved ones we lost this year.

Seniors rock.