On our franch, we give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives on Thanksgiving like the Pilgrims did in 1621. Unlike the Pilgrims, we did not struggle for a whole year to grow the food on our table today. Our franch though can easily offer a unique opportunity for our children to learn to appreciate, in a very small way, what life was like for the Pilgrims. I recently suggested to our children that we decide on a very simple menu for next year. Our franch challenge is to raise our own turkey and grow the main ingredients of every side dish on our land for next year’s Thanksgiving. If we fail at growing and harvesting the chosen food, then it’ll be missing at our feast. For one, you all know that pumpkin pie will likely not be on our table. We may even be missing a turkey. Well, our children’s expressions grew more worrisome the more I detailed the plan. I eased some of their concerns by agreeing that they wouldn’t have to churn butter, ground grains into flour, or fetch water from the nearest stream. Our oldest daughter, who loves all the traditional food of Thanksgiving, dramatically objected, “We will have nothing to eat on Thanksgiving next year!” It’s true, next year, our plates may indeed have very little on them. Or, we may very well be celebrating a bountiful harvest which our own hands brought to the table. Lesson learned, either way. This is the way it was for the Pilgrims. For them, the consequence of failure was devastating malnutrition and starvation, for us, it’s an empty stomach. So, if you are invited to our franch next year for the game on Thanksgiving day, please bring food.
Leave a Reply