I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you one of my favorite Thanksgiving stories. It is called 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey. The story is an adaptation of the familar poem written by Clement Moore. In it, a group of eight children go on a field trip to a turkey farm on the day before Thanksgiving. The children spend the day playing with the turkeys and form a bond with them. At the end of the day they realize what Farmer MacNuggett has in store for their future. The children decide to take matters into their own hands. As they leave the farm on their bus they are all a bit plumper and the turkeys are mysteriously missing. At each of the children's homes the next day Thanksgiving dinner is a vegetarian experience with an extra guest.
Now, I am not advocating for people to not eat turkey on the holiday. (It will definitely be on my menu.) But what I love about the story is the message. At the end, the turkeys are very thankful for the kindness that has been shown to them. It is so important to be thankful for the opportunites and advantages we have, but we also need to be thankful kindness shown. So often it is easy to focus on what is negative and difficult. I would like to challenge all members of the DT community to do two things: Show kindness to someone AND recognize the kindness shown by others.
I wish you all a wonderful holiday!
