Pilgrims, Wampanoag, and hand turkeys

   Who would have thought when those Pilgrims and Wampanoag gave thanks in the autumn of 1621 they were starting the dysfunctional holiday to end all?

   Keep your eyes on people in Pilgrim attire. Only 57 years after attending that first Thanksgiving, the Wampanoag chief’s grandson was sold into slavery.

   While for those descendents of Pilgrims, well this is also the 45^th anniversary of another Thanksgiving Day in Massachusetts, immortalized by Arlo Guthrie, “You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant .”

   Bring on the hand turkeys! Kudos to Rethink Autism for their “The First Thanksgiving” project, where children with autism will have a chance to see their own "hand turkey" art featured in an animated cartoon, on the Rethink Autism home page as well as on Facebook, iTunes, and YouTube. Children with Autism Create Thanksgiving Cartoon

   I know caregiving and it can be isolating. This use of social media to create a collective story sounds intriguing. And challenged or not, the eyes of children see the most extraordinary views.

   Oh! Samoset, what were you thinking, when you first walked into Plymouth in Spring, 1621 and greeted the Pilgrims in broken English? Imagine if you had greeted them with this year’s travel salutation, “don’t go touchin’ my junk”? Then again, you were wearing a loin cloth, rather visionary for travel attire.

   Twenty-one Thanksgiving mornings ago Patti who had gone to bed able-bodied, awoke unable to walk, see, barely talk and finished that Thanksgiving Day hospitalized with her first Multiple Sclerosis exacerbation.  … While holding our then 18 month old daughter in my arms, I began the journey of caregiving.

   On Thansgiving Eve 2010, Patti will awake in a care facility requiring the attended care of staff for the activities of daily living and a lift to get out of bed. ... While elsewhere a turkey will awake in the Willard Hotel, be chauffeured to the White House to be pardoned by the President, driven to a new home at Mt. Vernon in a horse-drawn carriage and be greeted with a trumpet fanfare?

… What’s in your Thanksgiving? J

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer 

web site: http://caregivinglyyours.com/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer 
musings: patrick ponders