the black hole (part 3)

One of my favorite memories of the black hole was Thanksgiving. This was the first Thansgiving away from home for my brothers and I. We were used to the whole big dinner thing, with Turkey and Ham, sweet potatoes with marshmallow top, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, creamed greenbeans with crunchy onion topping, cranberry jelly with cream cheese topping, and pies. Lots and lots of pies. Pumpkin, mince, apple, cherry and pumpkin. It was always a very big deal to us. Still is for me. We had a Thansgiving dinner here in Australia with fifty of our friends turning up. I love thanksgiving.

Well this year, my brothers and I, along with our new flatmates, decided to do our own thanksgiving. We would invite any of the other punks that didn't have a place to go and we would do it right. We cooked a turkey in our over, might have been the first time we ever used it. We made sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and some chips :) We bought pies, and bread, and another Thanksgiving tradition, sparkling apple juice. It was awesome.

As I sat around the table, I was surrounded by mohowks, leather jackets, bald heads and piercings. I felt like I was one of the pilgrims having the first thanksgiving with the (politically correct alert) indiginous people of America. And I was especially pleased when they all politely bowed their heads for a prayer before we started.

I think back and realize that there is something sacred about eating with others. I realize why the early church did so much eating together. We laughed, watched football on the tele, talked about other thanksgivings. You see we were all seperated from our family, so we became one ourselves, and it was an awesome time.

I have many wonderful thanksgiving memories, but that one, probably impacted my life more than the others. I have since tried to always honor the memory of the Black Hole Thanksgiving, by inviting others to share our table.

the rev