Random Wednesday: Thanksgiving Reruns, An Old Revelation, Self-Defense and Self-Care

Welcome to Random Wednesday — Thanksgiving Eve edition!

Let’s start with links to two past pieces I’ve written about Thanksgiving:

Giving Credit

Let’s start at the very beginning: credit to the Big Bang, to time and space, matter and energy, to this physical universe (and maybe multi-verse). Credit to the Sun’s furnace that powers us all, credit to this third rock out from it that supports us. Credit to the very first life form, ancestor of us all, to the laws and customs of chemistry that allowed it to come to be.

Gratitude, Schmatitude

But personally, when I hear someone say “Give thanks!” I want to respond “Don’t tell me what to do!” Or, perhaps more accurately, “Don’t tell me how to feel!”

For various reasons, I was reminded today of an old revelation. (The remembrance came upon me, for reasons unknown, while I was pumping gas; odd indeed are the ways of the world.) When I turned thirty, I went off for a weekend alone in the mountains, just me and my dogs and my guitar and some books. I rented a “cabin”, really a small vacation home, but it was isolated enough to be a retreat. I worked various magicks (and took various psychoactives), and perhaps I’ll tell more about that weekend some other time. But as I was driving home, I saw a sign for a tourist trap cavern. The mythological significance of a decent into the underworld to complete my retreat was too good to pass up.

So after two or three days alone, this was my first contact with humanity. Bored kids in the admission line behind me, parents fussing at them, the general tackiness and shabbiness of another roadside attraction. It was an irritating way to return to society.

And then it hit me, the great truth I was there to learn, with all the subtlety of a stalactite falling from the ceiling of a cave:

We’re all in this together. Like it or not — and sometimes you won’t like it — we’re all in this together.

Months ago I wrote about my neighboring town of Ellicott City, Maryland, being largely destroyed by a flood. Rebuilding continues but some shops are open, and Ellicott City’s traditional “Midnight Madness” holiday event will go on. If you’re local come shop and support.

Speaking of holiday shopping, have I mentioned my books lately? Why Buddha Touched the Earth or What Does It Mean For The Gods to Exist? make great gifts for the Zen Pagan on your list. Or check out The Zen Pagan Merch-o-rama with t-shirts, mugs, posters and prints, and stickers designed by your humble author. Your support makes this blog possible.

Also if you’re local, I will be teaching a four-week self defense class at Firehouse Arts and Music in Baltimore starting next week, and a two-hour introduction to self-care with acupressure and shiatsu in Frederick on December 17th.

You can keep up with “The Zen Pagan” by subscribing via RSS or e-mail.

If you do Facebook, you might choose to join a group on “Zen Paganism” I’ve set up there. And don’t forget to “like” Patheos Pagan and/or The Zen Pagan over there, too.