November 23, 1978

Thanksgiving is like the two-minute warning in football. Time-out is called, the players and coaches are informed the game's end is near, and then the action continues with hasty zeal. Such is Thanksgiving.
It is a brief time-out when we slow down, assess the preceeding months, and ponder the remaining five weeks of the year.
The weather has changed quickly; days are now cold and short, the brightness that was summer is gone, replaced with first a colorful splash of autumn and then the grey of winter. Change is all around. We have new politicians, new coats, new tires. Talk is of football and basketball instead of baseball. Christmas lists are beginning to fill in. We are building quickly toward the culmination of another year.
Then, in the midst of all that change, we are presented with a soothing tradition-Thanksgiving. A day that has not really changed in the last 100 years. Oh, we do require turkey now instead of chicken. And instead of going down into the basement for embellishments we just open a can. We watch television now when the dinner is complete instead of pitching horseshoes in the yard. But the most important thing about Thanksgiving has remained unaltered-the family is still the heart and soul of the celebration.
Norman Rockwell, who will be keenly missed this holiday season, captured the essence of the day in his precise painting of the Thanksgiving table; a family of young and old line the table with knowing winds and expectant smiles, while at the center is the smoking, juicy turkey. The picture radiates warmth, comfort, and love; the feelings of Thanksgiving.
The timing of Thanksgiving is one of its finest elements. (Would turkey and dressing taste the same in July?) It comes after the hardest work of the year is over, and just before we are confronted with the chaos of Christmas and New Year.
It is the two-minute warning of the year; the calming time-out.
Yet, it is also a notice that time does continue to slip by. A subtle reminder that we are all getting older. A mention that the game is yet to be finished.... ~T.Stucky