Another beautiful sunny October morning for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. My thoughts are scattered and disjointed – sad and glad intermixed. It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. First of all I have to be happy that a woman won the Nobel Peace Prize and not Donald Trump. Indeed that is a very good reason to be happy and hopeful that the good will prevail.
Last year was our last Thanksgiving with our mother though I don’t think we all gathered together for a meal. There was much that happened last year. My nephew cooked and catered the meal to each of us. How wonderful was that, eh? This year we will be taking our father out for Chinese tomorrow evening. Then he has an invite from my brother’s mother-in-law for Easter Monday. As for ourselves, we have no plans for a ham or turkey. We can just relax and do whatever. I have never been one big for celebrations. Shame on me?
I do remember Thanksgiving of 2014. How could I forget? We flew to France on Thanksgiving day. There was a problem with my ticket but we didn’t know that till we were boarding at the airport. It was a holiday so our travel agency was closed. We had to buy another ticket right then and there at the airport from Air Canada. We got to Paris and saw it right after we stepped off the plane in the morning. Needless to say it was all a blur. I slept through most of it. The next day we were included in a birthday party. Everyone spoke in French. It was great in that I didn’t have to do any small talk since I have no French.
We got a refund for my faulty ticket from the travel agency after our return home. I can’t remember what was wrong with it. Some things are best forgotten. The French trip was full of drama. I was sick for a long time after we got back to Saskatoon. But there were some bright moments.
onethousandandtwo 
I imagine that these first holidays without loved ones are hard. My heart goes out to you and your family. As for the trip to France – we have memories like that too. They are so stressful in the moment but we are getting good laughs now – years later…. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Claudia.
Interesting blog and how great to go to France. I’m glad you got refunded for you ticket. Yes those “firsts” are so hard. This will be by second Thanksgiving without Rich and I don’t think it will be any easier. Hugs to you Lily.
Thank you, Martha. Hugs to you, too.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving, Doug.
Ugh, the joys of traveling and the hurdles that come with it. Glad you got refunded. I’m curious about your experience in France, especially because my post today is talking about my very recent impressions.
Happy Thanksgiving, dear Lily, I hope you and your hubby will enjoy doing whatever and not worry about turkey and entertaining.
Thank you, Tamara.
Hi Lily, thank you for sharing your experiences. I am glad you were able to get a refund for your ticket! Those first holidays without loved ones are truly the hardest. Thanksgiving here in the U.S. was my mom’s favorite holiday. She passed away in 2007. Even though I make vegan Thanksgivings now, the kitchen still has the same smells and for a moment it feels like she is there cooking with me. Sending virtual hugs!
Thank you, Jennifers. Hugs to you, too!
Re: the Nobel Peace Prize … In the past but apparently now more than ever, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has seen undeniably widespread partisanship via Internet and news commentary. The politics of polarization outside of Israel and even the Middle East, perhaps in part for its own sake, has gotten quite disturbing. Within social media especially, the angry and thoughtless two-dimensional views have been especially amplified, including the majority posted by non-Jews and non-Palestinians.
It all arouses a spectator-sport effect or mentality, with many contemptible trolls residing well outside the region yet actively supporting the ‘side’ [via politicized commentary posts] that they hate less. I anticipate many actually kept/keep track of the bloody match by checking the day’s-end death-toll score, however extremely lopsided those numbers.
Largely relevant to the present social and political turmoil, both domestically and abroad, are the words of American sociologist Stanley Milgram (1933-1984), of Obedience Experiments fame/infamy: “It may be that we are puppets — puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception [and] awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation.”
At least as individuals, we can try to resist flawed human nature thus behavior, however societally normalized it may be, once we become aware of its potential within ourselves. Once cognizant of it, perhaps enough of us could instead perform truly humane acts in sufficient quantity to initiate positive change on a large(r) scale.
Currently, however, there’s relatively little compassion in the world when compared to the very plentiful anger or rage. I’ve noticed myself getting angrier over the last few years, especially about domestic and global injustices, or at least how I perceive them as such. Maybe my anger is largely related to the Internet’s ‘angry algorithm’ sending me the stories, etcetera, it has (unfortunately correctly) calculated will successfully agitate me into keeping the (I believe, overall societally-/socially-damaging) process going thus maximizing the number of clicks/scrolls I’ll provide it to sell to product advertisers.
Regardless, I often see the human race as perhaps desperately needing a unifying existential/fate-determining common cause; so much so that an Earth-impacting asteroid threat or, better yet, a vicious extraterrestrial attack may be what we have to collectively brutally endure together in order to survive the longer term from ourselves.
Thank you for your interesting post. I’m not a politcally savvy person and not aware of the politics behind the award.