Photo by theogeo

People develop different rituals to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Laurel and Hardy fans may tune in to March of the Wooden Soldiers, or watch the Macy’s Parade.  A local radio station plays Alice’s Restaurant in its entirety every year (I never tire from hearing the massacree again).  Some may run in the local Turkey Trot, or pull a muscle or two in the neighborhood Turkey Bowl.  Others will plop down on the couch as the plasma bathes them in images of whoever is clobbering the Detroit Lions this year.  Some brave shoppers are getting their itineraries set for Black Friday.  But I started a new ritual a couple of years ago, and it’s always put me in the right frame of mind for Turkey Day.

The ritual

I’ve always been able to empathize with other people’s suffering.  I’ve got it pretty good, even though I tend to complain about life’s little annoyances.  I’m grateful for the life I have, and here’s where my ritual comes in.  Every year, about a week before Thanksgiving, I re-read a book to put me in the holiday frame of mind.  The book is The Long Walk.  It’s the story of a prison escape from a Siberian labor camp during World War II.  Nothing like a tale of human deprivation to get you in the holiday spirit.  Pass the stuffing…

The story

The Long Walk tells the story of one Slavomir Rawicz (I can’t pronounce his name, either), a Polish cavalry lieutenant who is captured by the Soviets during the invasion of Poland at the start of World War II.  He spends a year in several prisons, each one worse than the last, before his sentencing to 25 years of hard labor.  Oh, and he’s also tortured, packed into a standing-room-only railroad car, shipped thousands of miles across Russia, and then marched through the Siberian winter for several months before reaching the labor camp.  He’s literally fed bread and water, and watches as the ranks of his fellow prisoners thin out due to disease and malnutrition.  But the worst is yet to come!

The escape

He plots an escape with several other prisoners, and they head south towards Afghanistan.  The only problem is that they literally have only the clothes on their backs, and a few meager supplies.  Not the ideal setup for crossing the Gobi Desert!  As members of the escape party perish from the hardships, they are reduced to eating snakes.  Then, they run into yet another obstacle: the Himalayas.  And guess who forgot to pack mountain climbing gear?

The lesson

You might think that I have a screw loose, or that I’m some goth kid that cuts himself.  Wrong on both counts.  A story like The Long Walk reminds me that I shouldn’t complain if my steak isn’t cooked to my specifications, or if my son forgot to take out the garbage.  These guys survive under the most arduous conditions, with no material possessions.  They’re thankful for an extra length of cloth to wrap around their bloody feet.  Talk about extreme frugality!

So in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I immerse myself in the agony of a young Polish man from nearly 70 years ago, and the turkey tastes that much better, the Sam Adams seems that much colder, the Ashton cigars taste that much richer, and the football game is that more enjoyable, because I can appreciate what I have.

What are some of your Thanksgiving rituals?

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