Giving thanks to our ancestors

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, an American tradition celebrating the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag native Indians sharing an automn harvest feast.  Ever since, Americans have taken the opportunity to gorge themselves, especially in the past century.  The tradition is one characterized by stuffing (our bellies), then typically sitting back and watching a football game.

How can we celebrate the Thanksgiving tradition by truly being thankful for what we have, but without resorting to gluttony that extends into Christmas and New Year's, thus destroying whatever good health we have followed until then, and setting ourselves up for new - the same - resolutions year after year?

Consider that the original Pilgrims feasted on wild turkey grilled over a fire (not stuffed, buttered, jellied, or confit), cooked corn, sweet potatoes and tomatoes, and perhaps some fresh cranberries and other fruit.

But you protest, Wait a minute, it's Thanksgiving.  Aren't you supposed to throw caution to the wind, invite Uncle Fred and Grandma Sweetie, and simply indulge? Don't all the cooking shows tell you to add butter and cream, and all sorts of sweets to the mix?

TV programing and commercialization of this holiday notwithstanding, it is possible - if not essential - to exercise some modicum of restraint, if for no other reason than one's long-term health and short-term wellbeing.  No, it is not essential to recreate the so-called feast of yore, and chase down a wild turkey and build a fire in one's backyard.  But restraint in the form of a single piece of pie, or indeed, delaying desert until a bit later in the day, might go a long way toward not obliterating every good intention one might have.