Faith. Freedom. Family. Food. Football.
I imagine that most readers would join me in identifying the same five words in describing what Thanksgiving means to them. Except for football, these were relevant components of the first Thanksgiving in 1621.
Faith is at the heart of the celebration. The Pilgrims came to America to establish their right to worship as they pleased. Faith has an even more important meaning in the wake of the recent election.
America has never been as divided as it is today, but we all must call upon our faith, both from a religious standpoint and a patriotic standpoint, to believe that our collective goodness as a nation can bind our political wounds.
Freedom is at the heart of our prayers on Thanksgiving Day. As long as I can remember, thanking God for the freedoms we enjoy, which are often taken for granted, has been the central theme of the invocation offered by me or another family member at our midday Thanksgiving meal. These freedoms, enshrined in our Constitution and preserved for generations by the brave men and women of our armed forces, define our democracy and inspire our ambitions.
Family is at the heart of the holiday. As the sole survivor of my four-member nuclear family, Thanksgiving always brings a bittersweet remembrance of the good fortune with which I have been blessed, to have loving parents and a younger brother to share so many holidays.
Like most families, ours now includes new generations and aging contemporaries who have gathered on Thanksgiving with fond recollections of those who have gone before us. Multigenerational touch football games, basketball shootouts and neighborhood walks filled our afternoons in vain attempts to re-tighten belts after our annual indulgence.
Food is at the heart of, well, everything at Thanksgiving. Recognizing that not everyone enjoys the same bounty is a stark reminder of our obligation to those in need whose holiday reflections are not as joyous. Inevitably, Thanksgiving means the traditional turkey and cornbread dressing, but, for me, it also means that Louisiana original, spinach madeleine, first introduced in the Junior League's 1959 River Road Cookbook; cranberry sauce (always the jelly kind) and a side dish usually reserved for only holiday celebrations — cheese potatoes.
Finally, with apologies for the alliteration, there is football. Our family, like so many is passionate about sports, particularly our beloved LSU Tigers and New Orleans Saints. Popular culture and the presence of football on television make the play-by-play of Thanksgiving games an audible backdrop to mealtime conversation and post-meal watching (and napping).
It's easy to reminisce about the old days of Pat Summerall, Dick Enberg and Curt Gowdy and to anticipate the voices of Al Michaels and Mike Tirico — all channeling the ghost of John Madden, who nowadays is as identified with Thanksgiving as the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. He also made famous another Louisiana original, the turducken.
Thanksgiving means memories and gratitude for our community, country and state, a place unlike any other with a reverence for faith, freedom, family, food, and yes, football!