GIVING THANKS THIS THANKSGIVING

What’s Really Good People?

You know they say tough times don’t last; only tough people do… So with that in mind I know that the best is yet to come. Am stronger today than I was yesterday and with all the love & support in my corner “I 2 Shall Rise”. It is so fitting that a major holiday has now sprung upon us and what do you know, it’s commonly referred to as THANKSGIVING. You ready? Let's Go!

Ok people; let me get focused…

By far the one and only holiday I care to celebrate every year is THANKSGIVING. Yes; every calendar year on the fourth Thursday in November people all over in the United States are making plans for travel, getting their appetites ready and preparing for an entire day of American football. First; we get it in during pick-up games at a local park or neighboring school and then leave it to the professionals in the National Football League (NFL) to take over starting around 12pm. You know something is a BIG DEAL in America when everything SHUTS-DOWN the day before as government agencies, schools and local businesses start closing or perform their early dismissals.

THANKSGIVING is the closest and next best thing to the annual Eid Muslim Holiday celebrations I grew up on back home in Nigeria with my family and community. I mean as a kid, there was nothing like the anticipation of Eid. The pursuit of securing the toughest Ram that was willing to compete and battle an entire block or neighborhood full of Rams and win the title of last Ram standing always thrilled and won some type of informal honor that many of us looked forward to. Then going to the local salon to get that photo-shoot fresh haircut to go with a brand new outfit as my siblings and I would coordinate everything from shoes, jewelry and accessories always made the kid in you feel like a million bucks. And then came the food, I mean mo food & some mo food… It typically mirrors the festivities many Americans part-take in every spring during EASTER and fall at THANKSGIVING.   

Unlike many of the flippant, commercialized Hallmark holidays created and celebrated in the western world for the sake of CAPITALISM and boosting a dying economy, THANKSGIVING represents the core values and characteristics dear to me such as family, food, entertainment and sleep. And there is not one person alive that can say that they have survived a good THANKSGIVING meal without catching the infamous iDas. Gone is the competition to overspend to prove one’s worth, adults acting like children and fighting over goods at local department stores, people camping outside stores at 5am in order to get their hands on the hot new purchase of the season (iPad, iPhone, iNuffin); a sea of traffic and madness at the local malls, etc... And with THANKSGIVING there is no need to run around for months in advance looking to buy that perfect gift and overspend just to have the recipient look at you like “That’s it”?

So to my immediate family and friends and to my entire “My Omo Naija” family, supporters and viewers I want to wish you all an early HAPPY THANKSGIVING. And for those that may feel that they don’t have very much to be thankful for, I leave you with quote from Winston Churchill that always rings TRUE in my world – “If you going through hell; KEEP GOING”.

I only wish that our THAKSGIVING celebration lasted 3 days like the first one did when the Plymouth Pilgrims first introduced this great tradition to the world. Oh; let’s not forget the Native Americans…

Gobble Gobble!