The decorations of ghosts, goblins and plastic turkeys will soon be replaced by Santa and his elves as is befitting the celebration of the all-important December shopping season. Meanwhile, I hope Thanksgiving Day and its significance will be celebrated among family and friends.
Despite a setback or two, the LGBT community should acknowledge and give thanks for several recent victories. Particularly note that among the people gathered around were our actual, legal, in-your-face spouses and children. Furthermore, before digging in, I trust a pause was taken to remember those in our hearts forever, our absent friends. Their love and friendship will never be forgotten.
I always remember my fellow students in New York and my first holiday there as we shared a new, gay/lesbian life so many years ago. About 20 of us fashioned a T-Day dinner in my cramped apartment, sitting on the floor with our paper plates, lots of cheap wine and homemade cigarettes. As the time passed, we slowly separated into two groups. The guys jammed into the kitchen to watch the parade on the tiny TV and critique the costumes and make unprintable comments about the male marchers while the gals commandeered the living room TV to watch and dissect the football game. Thanks to a few heavy duty cigarettes I declared this sexual partition as “un-unificationary.” I straddled the adjoining doorway to show my impartiality and harangued all with charges of “un-unificationaryism.” Both sides were highly amused.
Now, as then, the day is about being grateful amidst fun and togetherness topped off by the special array of goodies. Enjoy and give thanks.
Nap time
I was please to read a newspaper article the other day about the importance of a mid-afternoon nap. 20 minute duration seems to be very beneficial to health and productivity. Longer than that, however, leads to sloth which we certainly wouldn’t want.
The older we get the more unscheduled our naps become. They seem to happen at the strangest times. In fact, I usually don’t even plan on having a little lie-down. The most frequent time for an unannounced siesta seems to be when I close my eyes for second to picture the spacing and letters of a crossword puzzle clue. When I open them again, my paper and pen are on the floor and it is 10 to 30 minutes later. I can’t understand how that happens. I can now empathize with my grandmother. I remember how often she would complain about a TV show she was enjoying and would rest her eyes just for a moment (“I wasn’t sleeping”). After a few (or more) minutes, she’d angrily comment something like, “What happened to the blond girl? Mercy sakes! A body can’t turn around before the plot changes. Who can understand these modern plays?”
On one occasion when I worked in an office, I fell asleep with my head on the desk unknowingly resting my forehead on a document with a newly stamped “STOP PAYMENT” on it. The first part transferred to my forehead. At a quick glance the reversed image seemed to spell POTS. No one told me about it for the entire afternoon. You can imagine how we laughed.
On another tangent, I seem to remember once upon a time “afternoon delight” was used to imply a nap of some sort, but it was so long ago, I can’t remember why.
