Hedonism

Hedonism:
is
the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life.

Epicurean:
is
the doctrine that pleasure is the only good.

"Happy Thanksgiving!" An American tradition that epitomizes
the hedonistic epicures. A time where people get together to demonstrate
their sybarite talents in the form of a culinary feast for the pleasure zones
of the human psyche. Tradition intimates us to gorge ourselves on our harvest
of the year. While perhaps in the beginning of this tradition we had a need
to celebrate the harvest and give thanks to our chosen deities for the harvest:
we have turned this festivity into a celebration of all that is base and
immoral.

This year I celebrate my first Thanksgiving. This year my father, who lives
hundreds of miles away, was in town over the Thanksgiving holiday. So this
year I asked him to come to my home and share in this festival with my family.
This was the first "Thanksgiving" that we hosted as a family, (too often
going to others' ).This year I was bandleader of our own hedonistic tendencies.
Years before I became a teacher I was a chef -- albeit while this
term today is widely used to represent any kitchen personnel there does exist
a protocol for one's self to be able to qualify for this professional moniker.
As a chef I (with the assistance of too many people to list in this treatise)
opened up our restaurants to people less fortunate than those families who
were able to gather together. That is, we offered a Thanksgiving feast for
those people who may be alone on that particular Thursday in November, or
had not the resources to proffer their own dinner, or whose parents/children
no longer were with them, or people who just wanted to gather as a community
instead of the narcissistic demands of family.

Thanksgiving as we teach in American schools was a time that pilgrims from
European countries came to another land seeking freedom from religious
persecution. Their dream existed as a means to worship their chosen deity
in their chosen fashion when and where they chose to. Accordingly, we as
Americans claim that America was established, founded, built, created, mortared,
solidified on the beliefs and values of "religious freedom". Since America
was "established" on these principles it would be safe to claim that America
still stands for this concept, this "religious freedom". And at Thanksgiving
we gather together and demonstrate our faith by being thankful for our community,
family, and lives.

We tend to blame "tradition" for the reasons we do the things we do: it was
"tradition" to roast turkey on Thanksgiving, it was "tradition" to gather
with family, it was "tradition" to praise "God". But these are not things
of tradition. Thanksgiving was first celebrated with the "Pilgrims" and
Indians of America. It was a gathering of harvest, a celebration of
"thanks" but of thanks for making it through the year. Everyone brought their
own identity to the table and shared. (At the time the pilgrims called all
American fowl "turkeys") The foods were the local fare: venison, squirrel,
raccoon, fowl, maize, roots, gourds, tree fruits and berries. These foods
were cooked in a combined effort of many different cultures utilizing these
cultural differences: instead of excluding them!

I bring this up because too often we as Americans forget that we are a nation
of merged cultures. (As I like to joke we are not so much "Farengi"
as we are the "Borg" -- assimilation is inevitable -- "resistance is futile").
We are a nation of people from all walks of life, all corners of the globe,
from diverse cultural preferences. We are fortunate as gourmands: the typical
American can easily, and within a short radius of their home, dine on Middle
Eastern cuisine on Monday, Mexican on Tuesday, European on Wednesday, Asian
on Thursday, Icelandic on Friday, African on Saturday, Mediterranean on Sunday
and all kinds of variations in between. In my own home it is not unusual
to have Italian roasted chicken with a side of red beans and rice, buttered
tortillas, and a medley of "stir-fry veggies".

The point? Logic would deem that in America "Thanksgiving" should
be a celebration of community, of harvest, of roasted turkey and cheese
enchiladas, of pierogi in nam soc, of miso maize dumplings with curry, of
bangers and beans, of salted cod and lutefisk , of sashimi and knockwurst…
"Thanksgiving" would be a communal praise of Allah, Jesus, Yahweh, Buddha,
Mother Earth, Thor, Gilgamesh, Aristotle. "Thanksgiving" to our chosen "lord"
would be accomplished through bread breaking, wine toasting, herb burning,
goat bloodletting, or however our chosen faith represents a giving of thanks.
For in America "Thanksgiving" is a representation of the communal gathering
of cultures though harvest and a celebration of religious freedom. Which
means we have the freedom to practice our religion without fear of reprisal
or persecution.

And yet in America we recognize this "freedom" and its separation from the
hand of government as long as it is the prescribed faith of the
majority. This I do not understand.

But then as my father is often wont to say: "I understand everything but
Greek… and that sounds like Greek to me."