Hello Internet!
I hope everyone had a wonderful week and are looking forward to this upcoming week. If you didn’t know or maybe forgot, this upcoming week is Thanksgiving. That’s right. This Thursday is officially “Turkey Day.” For some reason it seems earlier this year than years past, but maybe that’s just me. Maybe you’re out there totally prepared for Thanksgiving. I am not. Now I’m just a young, twenty-something year old, so I don’t have a whole family to cook for. I’m not hosting my whole family for Thanksgiving. I’ll be attending a few different Thanksgiving Lunches and Dinners in this next week and filling up on turkey, mash potatoes, corn, and dinner rolls. Yum!
But before I make myself hungry or get too far into talking about Thanksgiving, I first want to go over some housekeeping things. First thing I want to say is that there will NOT be a new Pokemon Fanfiction Chapter or Writing Prompt piece this week. I’m taking the week off for Thanksgiving. Now I will still be writing, but it would be preparation for the weeks to come. I’m planning on having a new Weekly Blog on Sunday, November 26th, a new Pokemon Chapter (or two) on Wednesday, November 29th, and the Third Part of Riffen’s “origin story” on Friday, December 1st as well as a Special Monthly Update on December 1st about my New Year’s Resolutions just like months past. To help you fill that void in your heart that is caused by the lack of new published pieces, I suggest you check out Half-Elven Prince Part 1 and Half-Elven Prince Part 2 in preparation for the third part coming out next week. If you like that and are interested in the Dungeons and Dragons inspired world I’m building, you can check out A Band of Misfits Try Saving The Day which kicked it off as well as Beware the Dragon Part 1 which focuses on Juniper’s “origin story.” (Don’t worry, Sigthyme and Tak’s stories are coming in the new year). Also it might be a good time to start my Pokemon Sun and Moon series since the new game came out. So far there has been 27 chapters released starting with Pokémon Adventures #1: Welcome to Alola. Those chapters are a little longer than other pieces I write, but I try to tell an overarching story based on my playthrough of Pokemon Sun and Moon. So check those out. There haven’t been new chapters posted these past couple weeks due to a mix of low motivation and poor time management, but I’m hoping to get at least 3 or 4 more chapters posted before the end of the year. I just don’t know how much interest there is in continuing the series and it has left me unsure whether or not I should write more. So if you’re a fan of the series and you want me to write more, make sure you give the series some love. If I see a ton of views, likes, and comments on the Pokemon Fanfiction Chapters, I’ll know that there’s an audience for it and I’ll continue it. If not, I’ll change it up and maybe start a new series on Wednesday’s.
That kind of leads into the second thing I wanted to say. In the next few weeks I’m going to be looking at ways to improve my website going into 2018. This is going to involve some aesthetic changes to the website which should make it easier for you, the reader, to find the stuff you want to read easier and more efficiently. I also just want to make the website better to look at as well as use. This also involves changing the type of stuff I post here on the website. I’m looking at my stats to see what everyone is interested in and what pieces you aren’t interested in. So if there is something you really like and want to see more of, make sure you give it a like or leave a comment on it letting me know you like it. The more attention a Weekly Blog post gets or Writing Piece gets, the more weight I’ll give to it going into 2018 knowing that is what people want to read. It isn’t going to completely change the stuff I write (some stuff I write for me), but it will give me a general idea of what you like and what you don’t like. Basically if you really like a piece, go back and give it another view as well as giving a like and leaving a comment. Also if you have suggestions about the website and how to make it better, leave a comment down below or shoot me an email at allen.the.writer@gmail.com!
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get back to the Thanksgiving festivities. I talked a little bit in last week’s Weekly Blog about Christmas Creep that Thanksgiving is often overlooked. October is all about Halloween and December is all about Christmas, but November is seen as only a speed bump between the two. I mean there are Christmas decorations and promotions in the stores as soon as the “back to school sales” end in September. So why is Thanksgiving so overlooked? Well I think it may be because it has a bit of an identity crisis and a poor marketing team. In 2017 (and before that) Thanksgiving can be seen as a controversial holiday. When it comes to American History and the relations between European Settlers and Native Americans, Thanksgiving can be seen as a “Whitewashing of history” where everyone just got wonderfully and there was no issues between the Pilgrims and the Native People. As Histroy.com puts it:
“Some Native Americans and others take issue with how the Thanksgiving story is presented to the American public, and especially to schoolchildren. In their view, the traditional narrative paints a deceptively sunny portrait of relations between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people, masking the long and bloody history of conflict between Native Americans and European settlers that resulted in the deaths of millions.”
On top of that, people kind of view Thanksgiving as a “worse Christmas.” There’s still a celebration with friends and family like there is with Christmas, but it happens a month earlier, there isn’t any snow on the ground, and there’s no presents. Not to be that person, but people enjoy exchanging presents. That’s just a fact. I mean there is a reason why Black Friday is a thing and why the Christmas Shopping Season is a huge deal to both businesses and consumers. Another thing is that Black Friday seems to really undercut Thanksgiving and what it is supposed to mean. Thanksgiving is supposed to be about spending time with your friends and family and thinking about all the things you have to be thankful for. It’s supposed to be a time of reflection where you appreciate all the things you have. Then when the clock strikes midnight and it becomes Black Friday, people swarm stores and malls fighting one another over big screen televisions and kitchen appliances. People literally trample each other in Walmarts trying to get the newest toy for their child moments after they were talking about how thankful they were for non-material goods. On top of that, Thanksgiving doesn’t even have any songs about it and its mascot is a Turkey. We literally eat the mascot for the holiday on the day of the holiday. That would be super messed up if we did that at sporting events or at Christmas time.
So is Thanksgiving this awful, racism filled, lesser version of Christmas? Well maybe for some people, but I don’t think so. Some people don’t care for Thanksgiving and that’s perfectly alright. For me, it’s not my favorite holiday and I much prefer Christmas (which is my favorite holiday), but I still like Thanksgiving and I believe it deserves to be celebrated. You don’t have to focus on the original Thanksgiving and the story of the Pilgrims and Native Americans at Plymouth. Instead focus on what Thanksgiving should be all about: Giving Thanks. Thanksgiving for me is a time where you get to spend time with close friends and family, watch some football, and think about how good you have it. No matter what bad stuff is going on in the world or your own personal life, you still have a lot to be thankful for. Maybe it is your family, friends, or a significant other. Maybe it is the roof over your head. Maybe it is the fact you have a computer or smart phone, electricity, and the internet all of which allows you to read the words that I have typed. Maybe it’s food, money, pets, car, coats, or anything else. I know I often get stressed out about not having everything I want. I don’t have enough money or enough views on a post or enough time in the day. But Thanksgiving is supposed to be about flipping that attitude and that point of view on its head. Instead I should think about how I have a loving family some of which I was born into and some of which chose me. I should think about the friends I have and the social net of support that surrounds me. I should think about the fact that I have a roof over my head and a warm bed to sleep in at night. I have a job that allows me to pay for my student loans each month and an education that I was able to get through hard work and determination. I have the free time available to me where I get to sit down each week and write a blog about my week or a story about an Elven girl and her pet dragon. That’s what I’m going to be focusing on this week and I’m hoping that you’ll be thinking about what you are thankful for.
That’s all I want to say about Thanksgiving. I hope that you enjoyed that Weekly Blog. If you did, give it a like or even share it. You can also leave a comment down below on your thoughts about Thanksgiving. Maybe you want to tell me whether or not you are Pro or Anti-Thanksgiving or maybe you want to tell me your favorite Thanksgiving tradition/memory or maybe you want to leave a comment about something you’re thankful for. No matter what you write, I’d love to see it. If you Weekly Blogs aren’t really your thing, there are plenty of other things on the website that you can read. I listed some recent things up above in the second paragraph of this Weekly Blog so you can check those out or just spend some time on the website. There are over 140 different pieces on the website, so I hope you can find something you’ll like to read. I am thankful and appreciate all of your support whether that comes to me in the form of views, likes, comments, or shares. It really makes my day, so thank you for all of it!
I hope you have a wonderful week and a Happy Thanksgiving!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to the wonderful artist Norman Rockwell. It is The Painting, “Freedom from Want” by Norman Rockwell. Picture came from Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_from_Want_(painting)
Allen The Writer 