Editor’s Note: This piece was sent in during the Thanksgiving holiday and got lost in the shuffle, but the message is still relevant to the season. We’ll be running articles by Calvin periodically. — Amanda
By Calvin Hutcheon
It is a sad state of affairs when a family looks forward to the Thanksgiving holiday not for the conversation, or the act of preparing a feast, but for mere consumptions, be they the glutinous devouring of the turkey, the ravenous watching of a metaphorical turkey being tossed, or the unapologetic greed of Black Friday. There is little time for each other, when there are all these convenient distractions.
Football games offer a go between, a way to bond with the TV mediating. Many memories are created, as the game encapsulates the ups, downs, struggles and triumphs that create any real relationship, but these are mere surrogates for the real thing. Living vicariously has become expected, as it lets us go through the emotions without discomfort.
Products and familiar rituals offer further comfort, but the comfort of family has lost much of its charm, like the clothes or the bed dressing we posses. Once they were hand stitched and made with effort and commitment, now they are store bought and judged merely on their fashionableness and price; it is the same with memories and relationships.
Often times the mentality is, “if I buy this, the recipient will remember me fondly.” This is the mindset that drives extravagant sweet sixteen parties and kids expecting cars. Relationships are crafted out of small moments compiled and compounded. They are not formed by big, clumsy, grandiose gestures, but by the opposite.
Though these small moments of relating do happen, often they are interrupted and don’t have time to mature. The culprit: cell phones and other forms of instant distraction. Conversations are interrupted by calls and the thought process is derailed by superfluous electronic noises in the environment — this insidious presence is everywhere.