Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Thankless...a must read

Today I made a run to the Gyro place for lunch. The man in front of me ordered his food...a beef Gyro...and asked for some cucumber sauce (which just SOUNDS nasty!). The man behind the counter was working somewhat slowly, and didn't seem to be "all there." He informed the man that they were out of the sauce. At that moment, this man became upset at the fact that he may not be able to enjoy his $6 sandwich with this disgusting cucumber sauce, and stated (in ebonics almost), "oh yes you do! Don't tell me you ain't got none, I know you do!" The worker's boss told him (the worker) that there was a little bit left, and so the worker went to retrieve it. In the worker's absence, the customer says things (quite loudly) such as "what's wrong with you folks? Tell me you ain't got no cucumber sauce. You be tryin to lie to me." Yeah, ridiculous. The man returns with a squeeze bottle with a small amount of the sauce in it, grabs a little cup, turns the bottle upside down to fill the cup, and... SPLAT! The lid comes off of the bottle, squirting the entirety of the sauce all over the counter, leaving not even a drop in the man's cup. At this point, the "gentleman" (or not so gentle), becomes IRATE, saying "I don't even want it now. I can't eat it without my sauce!" and storms out the door, leaving his sandwich behind.

I'm sure my mouth was hanging wide open at the thought of someone acting so childish, but I was trying to figure out if this man was as old as he looked, or if it was really a four year old that had grown very quickly to over six feet tall.

As I left there (WITH my food), I thought, "the NERVE of that guy! The day before Thanksgiving and he obviously isn't thankful for ANYTHING!" I thought about all the kids in Haiti and Africa and other various places, who are literally dying of starvation right now. I thought about how they would have LOVED to have that sandwich, with or without the cucumber sauce, and how they would NEVER throw such a fit about something so small. It would make their day if they had a full, hot meal. I wanted to approach the man, but by the time I got over the shock, he was gone.

That got me thinking about tomorrow. I thought, "is there anything that we will eat tomorrow, that I would be upset about if I couldn't have it? Turkey? Sweet potatoes? Any one of the plethera of pies I'll have to choose from?" I realized that, while I really would never get THAT upset if I didn't get it, I would be somewhat disappointed. We all have our favorite holiday foods, and it just wouldn't be the holidays without them. Or would it?

Is the point of Thanksgiving to eat my sweet potato casserole? What if I couldn't have it? Would it not be Thanksgiving? Could I not still give thanks for what I DO have? Whoa.

We may not realize it because it is our very culture, but America is the richest, most selfish country in the world. Literally. We celebrate Thanksgiving with a huge Turkey (or the meat of your choice), tons and tons of sides, that we spend DAYS preparing, and a bunch of sweets. We celebrate Christmas by giving many wonderful, expensive gifts, wrapped in wrapping paper that costs around $4 a roll, with bows that are almost the same price. All the while, there is a family in Haiti that, tomorrow, will just pray to God that they survive another day.

Wow. Kinda makes me feel bad for eating that Turkey.

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