Think of it; you’re in space. Soaring above the Earth; soaring way above the Falcons and Bald Eagles; soaring where most men don’t dare to think about and most will never go.
So what do you do for Thanksgiving? Well….football watching, family talks, and a Turkey of course. A Turkey? Before you picture everyone gathered around a long table with joined hands and bowed heads – a Turkey with browned skin and juices al around it, mashed potatoes and stuffing and gravy and some idiot made Brussel sprouts (actually – that’s me; I love Brussel Sprouts!) well, that’s not quite it.
What is it? Pouches of irradiated smoked turkey and if you thought there was no pumpkin bread, think again. BUT it comes in bite-size portions, that way the crumbs don’t scatter every which way in zero gravity. For sides think candied yams and rehydratable corn. And if you wanted to close with some delicious apple or pumpkin pie—apparently the packaged versions just don’t scream the American Standard, so no, don’t!
But still, it is Thanksgiving. While the ISS doesn’t come complete with dining tables & chairs—or gravity, for that matter and as a result the usual rituals of dining tend to go out the window, for Thanksgiving, the astronauts (and cosmonauts) all join together. Besides, Thanksgiving isn’t about what you eat, it is one of the few holidays that really is more about whom you eat with and who is no longer able to be there and who couldn’t make it. You thank your higher power or the universe or both for allowing you so many blessings. It is really the spirit of communication & cooperation. It is a holiday that seems specially picked for the ISS! Think about it: they live out among the stars in an amazing laboratory in space, people from different countries of the world all working together for the betterment of mankind. They look out the windows, one shows them Earth in all her glory and the other shows them the vastness of space. AND this is a special holiday, a special Thanksgiving for astronauts and citizens of the world in general. The future space voyages are loosely planned; there is a purpose, a sense of ‘yeah, we got this’.
So I say to you, there is actually a new holiday and old rolled together. There isSpace-Giving.
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