Last day, on the news, for Thanksgiving, I saw the ex-President (G.W.Bush) taking a picture with his family, smiling in company of an beautiful huge turkey…alive. This image, really nice in appearance (everybody seems happy, and it’s the tradition to take a picture with the President and the turkey every year) seems also really shocking if you think about it more in depth.
In fact, this symbolic picture doesn’t remind us anything but that every year, too many turkeys are sacrified for Thanksgiving, but the problem is that we see those turkeys alive, and the minute after, they are on the table, ready to be devoured! Ethically, this represents a big issue, owing to the fact that, just by having this image in mind, we just have the impression that American people who celebrate Thanksgiving are ogres who just think about swallowing a lot of food just because this is the tradition! And they might more think about that, rather than why Thanksgiving exists since a long time. Why do we avoid the symbolic of the holiday, and just reach the “food thing”, instead of taking our time and profoundly try to think why does it exist, and why should we celebrate it with specific food, in a specific amount? personally, I would be glad to learn more about the Pilgrims, etc., but I still don’t know anything about it, and this is really sad…
For example, for Thanksgiving, I went with my sister to her male friend’s house in the area, and we were really well welcomed, but I have to be honest about something: when we started eating the dishes, I had more the impression to be in my school canteen rather than in a house where everyone shares the meal while really enjoying, speaking about a lot of life subjects, and having a good moment while taking our time. Here, everyone was eating very quickly, without almost never speaking, and I would say like trying to “expedite the thing” as fast as possible, in order to go upstairs and play the wii, especially when the friend is older than 30! Isn’t there something nonsense in this story?
This proves that the opinions that I had about the American society in general is just reinforced by these recent facts: the Americans never learnt how to take time at the table, and what they are looking to do, is eating as fast as possible, but in which purpose? It seems like eating is not considered here like a moment of conviviality and sharing discussion about anything, but more like a hurry to do…anything else, but eating!
This is also funny, because studies proved that when you eat faster than you should, you don’t feel that your stomach is full, and therefore you are tempted to eat more than you should, because you don’t feel the sensation of satiety. Therefore, if you are still wondering why there are so many people in overweight in this country, from now on, you’ll know why.. we will have warned you… (however, I don’t know enough about the US society to be able to give my judgement on it, so it’s just a personal opinion)
The difference with France, is that in my country, my parents taught me, like in every family, that we all had to eat while taking our time, speak about anything, our day, stories to tell, etc., and this was really helpful for children’s education in general.
It’s crazy how we can move from the subject of the status of the turkey in Thanksgiving to the way the American Society behaves at the table…
