The Thanksgiving holiday is all about gratitude. Which can make it worse.
For years, I avoided Thanksgiving. I said it was because of the food. I stated that as a vegetarian I could not share a table with my meat-eating parents. I endured the experience through high school, but once I was in college, my parents stayed with relatives while I flew to Europe for the cheapest international week of travel of the year. we are not close, I explained to anyone who asked. After grad school, there was a decade of "Friendsgiving." Mass dinners in my apartment for all vegetarians, vegans and orphans: those whose families were far away or non-existent.…
