Like many of you, I had to have a hard conversation with my family about what to do regarding Thanksgiving this year. My mother is one of five siblings and I am one of twelve cousins and we are one of those families that is blessed to really enjoy our time together. “Canceling” Thanksgiving was going to be an absolute heartbreak for all of us. However, as discussions continued, we settled into the idea that we were just going to have to celebrate in individual households this year, both to prevent becoming a “super spreader” event of 22+ people and also to limit the sheer number of people my grandmother and some in-laws of her generation would come in contact with.
So I will be celebrating with my mother, step-father, sister, and sister’s boyfriend: a significant reduction from what most of us expected on this beloved family holiday. Even so, this small group still technically consists of three different households, and some of us (yours truly being the prime example) are unable to strictly quarantine beforehand. I have struggled with whether even this diminished group is too much. I had honestly considered foregoing Thanksgiving altogether this year, for the sake of my family’s health, but my mother convinced me otherwise.
I tell you this as another reminder that we each have our own contexts and we are all going to come to different, difficult decisions. You are not alone in these struggles. Just remember that, when possible, less is more this year. We are all being called upon to make sacrifices for our own vulnerable relatives and for the other vulnerable members of our society. These sacrifices will only increase our thankfulness when we can, God willing, celebrate together again in the future.
Fr. Moore 