MELTING POT

Yesterday we had the perfect Thanksgiving feast; just one day early.

Let me first of all state that I do NOT like cooking.

Eating, yes. Cooking, no.

My husband took over Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago when I declared I would not longer be making meals after some 30+ years of cooking.

So it then became a yearly tradition to have way too much turkey, way too much ham, way too many vegetables, and way too many pies.

(But not too much cornbread stuffing. You can't have too much stuffing)

My husband had been raised by a single mother and times had been extremely tight. Thanksgiving in particular seemed to be skimped on, so his childhood fantasy of having more than enough food was acted upon each November.

And since our family is rather small, this resulted in loads of perfectly good food being thrown out.

So back to the perfect meal.

In the interest of economy and marital harmony, we now go to an "all-you-can-eat" buffet place in town, so then Wilt can have his too-much-of-everything, Joy and Josiah can have too much turkey meat, and I can load my plate with stuffing and apple pie.

But yesterday in particular I noticed something exceptionally wonderful as we all stuffed our faces and tried to listen politely to my brother's arrogant blustering.

As the place continued to become packed with other families (obviously doing the same death-by-turkey feast that we were), it was a wonderful mixture. For example:

• A family with two mentally-handicapped adults.
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• A family with their grandmother in a wheelchair.
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• One same-sex couple.
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• A family with five children under the age of six.
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• Multiple families that were of mixed race; not just black and white, but every shade of brown, yellow, red and cream that could be imagined and all the shades in-between.
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• Several older couples by themselves.
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• Several older couples with other older couples.
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• About eight people with canes (including my own daughter and brother)
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• And last but not least, a wonderful variety of employees in age, race, and mental abilities.

To me, that is what made this Thanksgiving special - that we do live in a society which, although it still has a ways to go, embraces the family regardless of its form, shape and/or color.

Just not quite enough cornbread stuffing yet.