The Midwest Loch Ness

Happy New Year everyone!

Woke up to see a sprinkling of snow outside.. not bad for only being November.

Wonder how cold it got when there was nobody living here but the Indians. They must've been used to it though.. Nowadays we're so spoiled, if we had to live the way they did, I think we'd just die like most of the pilgrims that first year... And that brings me to Thanksgiving.

What a weird holiday it is.. most Americans take it for granted as an extra day not to work- an extended weekend. Most actually know how the tradition started- but some... geesh.. some don't even know that it's only celebrated in the USA! ..and that's what scares me. I mean the whole celebration for it started because the people were so happy that They'd even survived! ..without the help, they might not have.. so they praised God for it, and thanked the Indians by learning how to live off the land so they wouldn't have to take the charity the next year.
  Ironically, We've disabled American Indians to the point that now they have to take charity from us! I've seen it, in the missions trip we went to in SD, I saw what it's done to them.. They take the government charity (bribery!!) and use it to buy alchohol.. continuing a vicious cycle of apathy and not taking charge of their lives. They're no longer the 'noble Savages' that we think of when re-telling the thanksgiving story.
  And how many people now even bother to pray at the table? Isn't that another offshoot of thanksgiving? (I'm not sure of this, it could be a chicken-before-the-egg thing) We are now so accustomed to the very presence of food, that we think it unnecessary to thank God each time because 'oh, well he already knows I'm thankful' (or if you're not a christian..), but that isn't the point! If you're really thankful, then Thank Him! Of course he knows, but the point is we need to show our thankfulness, show our respect for Him.

I hope I practice what I preach now... it seems like pretty good advice, lol.
oh and.. darn, too bad i didn't do a little 'I'm thankful for' thing at the end of my journal entries this month, it would have been kinda neat- except that it's already been done, and li'l ol' me doesn't like being a copycat... heh, must come from having been one all my life! I had no original ideas at all, everything came from my sisters.. I even believed everything they said! ..which led to many many misunderstandings and incorrect facts..
Thankfully, I'm on my own now. ;-)
  But also thankful that I have sisters.. can't live without 'em!