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further thoughts on thanksgiving, originally composed in my head while unable to sleep yesterday.
-Thanksgiving is odd. Not even just in that, as any reasonably curious person knows, it's a celebration that was founded to commemorate a successful massacre that occurred within a an ongoing act of genocide, but how unacknowledged that is. I mean, I'm British; we celebrate sectarian killing on an annual basis, but we don't play nicey-nice about it. There's a level of myth, sure, but the this is about killing other human beings part is lampshaded rather than obscure when it comes to November 5th. Within Thanksgiving it's entirely brushed under the carpet. As if saying 'thankyou' makes the supreme selfishness that you're starting out from less hideous than it is.
This pattern had its reflection on a household level, too: If the person who is footing the bill & providing the space for the celebration has said she wants low-key and simple, and you completely fucking ignore that and then gibber about thankfulness then no matter how little she says about this I am going to think of you as even more of a festering sack of shit than I did before. There's thanks, and then there's selfishness handwaved with a word.
-Christianism. Probably unavoidable, really unpleasant to deal with, and actually caused M to have a go at me for looking the opposite of appropriately festive, because it's that much more important to feign niceness than to be honest about yourself and the world around you. But, really: If you are going to try to engage a room in Christian prayer, and there is a person in that room who has a religion other than Christianity, and you have zero intention of acknowledging this in any way, shape or form, do not expect me to look happy about it. Do not expect me to feel like either I or anyone else wants me to be present with you at that moment.
Why are Christianists so fucking rude? Christians are more than capable of civilised behaviour, but then yesterday they hit that level where they act like it's vital to behave as if other people's religions do not exist, otherwise something bad right happen. No recognition that other religions exist, not on your supposedly secular holiday, not in front of the kids, nada. This is the kind of thing that reduces American conviviality to an ugly sham.
There was not, in any case, any space for me there; I don't pray the same way they do and had no intention of bringing the gods to the table. But the lack of even a cursory 'this arright?' was an unpleasant reminder of the conditions I exist under in this country; I'm only connected to it insofar as I'm invisible. The British ideal, when it happens which is never, is that I am a bent, eccentric devil-worshipper and that's okay; you don't have to like it but it's not yours to infringe upon. Here, no one seems to be able to look at me without pretending I'm like them. LOL, not. (This is, of course, part of why American individualism is a load of bollocks).
-Binge eating. This partly goes back to #1; 'Harvest Thanksgiving', as it was practised when I was a kid in the UK, is an annual church celebration roughly every September in which you say thanks because you live in an agrarian community that hasn't been wiped off the map yet, worse luck, and you give food away to the poor. No binges, it's just for giving away things you don't need as much as someone else does.
Again, midwinter binge-eating festivals are not weird. It's like an English Christmas a month early and with a set menu full of tasty pies, but, a), why are you calling it thanksgiving when it's really about your own greedy self?, b), doesn't the fact that you are not sharing your shit with groups of people who you would not normally associate with spit in the face of your own myth?
Also, c), don't you do this all the time anyway?
No, really; binge-eating is eerily normalised in America. Everything in larger quantities, more so than the simple disparity in family sizes would allow for; so-called 'convenience' that only exists to waste your time and money; bread and circuses. Many people act like regular food-binges are part of their normal lives, and they do this year-round. (Though really, I blame a lot of America's odd habits on the simple lack of tea.)
So it's festival without carnival; nothing unusual, not a time of plenty to carry you through times of harshness or restraint, and no secular break from the usual Christianist hegemony.
I am capable of just ignoring this bullshit and having a nice day. I managed it last year. This year the company was markedly less pleasant, I wrenched my shoulder mixing ridiculous quantities of biccies (most of them for M's work-friends, aw), and I do not actually recall ever feeling as bad as I have done the last month or so, partly because on previous occasions when I have felt this bad I lapsed into partial disassociation because reality provided no pressing reason to stick around.
Speaking of, wait, I'll just start another entry.
This pattern had its reflection on a household level, too: If the person who is footing the bill & providing the space for the celebration has said she wants low-key and simple, and you completely fucking ignore that and then gibber about thankfulness then no matter how little she says about this I am going to think of you as even more of a festering sack of shit than I did before. There's thanks, and then there's selfishness handwaved with a word.
-Christianism. Probably unavoidable, really unpleasant to deal with, and actually caused M to have a go at me for looking the opposite of appropriately festive, because it's that much more important to feign niceness than to be honest about yourself and the world around you. But, really: If you are going to try to engage a room in Christian prayer, and there is a person in that room who has a religion other than Christianity, and you have zero intention of acknowledging this in any way, shape or form, do not expect me to look happy about it. Do not expect me to feel like either I or anyone else wants me to be present with you at that moment.
Why are Christianists so fucking rude? Christians are more than capable of civilised behaviour, but then yesterday they hit that level where they act like it's vital to behave as if other people's religions do not exist, otherwise something bad right happen. No recognition that other religions exist, not on your supposedly secular holiday, not in front of the kids, nada. This is the kind of thing that reduces American conviviality to an ugly sham.
There was not, in any case, any space for me there; I don't pray the same way they do and had no intention of bringing the gods to the table. But the lack of even a cursory 'this arright?' was an unpleasant reminder of the conditions I exist under in this country; I'm only connected to it insofar as I'm invisible. The British ideal, when it happens which is never, is that I am a bent, eccentric devil-worshipper and that's okay; you don't have to like it but it's not yours to infringe upon. Here, no one seems to be able to look at me without pretending I'm like them. LOL, not. (This is, of course, part of why American individualism is a load of bollocks).
-Binge eating. This partly goes back to #1; 'Harvest Thanksgiving', as it was practised when I was a kid in the UK, is an annual church celebration roughly every September in which you say thanks because you live in an agrarian community that hasn't been wiped off the map yet, worse luck, and you give food away to the poor. No binges, it's just for giving away things you don't need as much as someone else does.
Again, midwinter binge-eating festivals are not weird. It's like an English Christmas a month early and with a set menu full of tasty pies, but, a), why are you calling it thanksgiving when it's really about your own greedy self?, b), doesn't the fact that you are not sharing your shit with groups of people who you would not normally associate with spit in the face of your own myth?
Also, c), don't you do this all the time anyway?
No, really; binge-eating is eerily normalised in America. Everything in larger quantities, more so than the simple disparity in family sizes would allow for; so-called 'convenience' that only exists to waste your time and money; bread and circuses. Many people act like regular food-binges are part of their normal lives, and they do this year-round. (Though really, I blame a lot of America's odd habits on the simple lack of tea.)
So it's festival without carnival; nothing unusual, not a time of plenty to carry you through times of harshness or restraint, and no secular break from the usual Christianist hegemony.
I am capable of just ignoring this bullshit and having a nice day. I managed it last year. This year the company was markedly less pleasant, I wrenched my shoulder mixing ridiculous quantities of biccies (most of them for M's work-friends, aw), and I do not actually recall ever feeling as bad as I have done the last month or so, partly because on previous occasions when I have felt this bad I lapsed into partial disassociation because reality provided no pressing reason to stick around.
Speaking of, wait, I'll just start another entry.
no subject
Ah, Thanksgiving. I'm glad we don't celebrate it here (for the reasons you pointed out).
Oh Christianists. :( Don't they realise what they're doing doesn't endear people to them at all? J and I say grace before dinner, and if someone there isn't a Christian we ask, "Is it OK if we give thanks for the food?" but I still wonder if that's enough because it might leave no room for the visitor to say no. I suppose this happens in our house, and of course this couldn't be enforced in another person's space.
no subject
no subject
You don't have Thanksgiving, but you do have Australia Day to contend with. :/ I'm curious, do churches in Aus have any kind of Harvest Thanksgiving in your autumn?
no subject
Ah, Invasion Day. But if you try referring to it like that around some people (e.g., friends), you're being "un-Australian" and a party pooper who should like it or leave it (the country, that is). =\ There's been talk of changing the date for a long time- the 2009 winner of the Australian of the Year award suggested it, but the government opposed it. On another note, the other reason why I avoid Australia Day celebrations in public spaces (e.g., the foreshore) is because of all the drunk people and the fact that I look "foreign". But try telling that to people as well.
To my knowledge, churches here don't have a Harvest Thanksgiving in autumn; at least not in the churches J and I have attended.
What kind of biccies have you been making? ^^