PARSLEY, SAGE, ROSEMARY, AND THYME

CHALLENGE:

We are about to celebrate Thanksgiving - a holiday when we gather in gratitude. But what value does Grandpa carry when Junior holds a device in his pocket whose information access is arguably infinite?

SOLUTION:

🎶Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme 🎶

We celebrated Thanksgiving early this year, and as I was shopping, chopping, cooking, setting table, serving, chatting, and cleaning up, my mind found its way back to Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. For those of you who are closer to the age of the children at your table than that of us older folks, your search engine would tell you that these are seasonal spices. For those with hair the color of mine, however, what comes to mind is the chorus of a Simon and Garfunkel tune that was an anthem for our era.

And so it goes with holidays, doesn’t it? The old anthems remind us of the many seasons and the many reasons we gather, some happy, some sad. Each vignette tells a story, and these stories frame who we are. It is around tables at these gatherings where our stories gift the young with a piece of their own oral history. And whether a story paints for them a picture of the culture in which we were raised, or sheds light on their own family tree, they listen. Because this is a story they can’t find on YouTube, filled with facts they can‘t Google and characters they’ll not see on Wikipedia.

                                           

So I encourage you to take time this Thanksgiving to tell a story. Tell two, or three. If they involve people to whom others present are related, you will likely get their attention. You may use a few terms to which they can’t relate, and even invoke a tune they don’t recognize. But they’ll leave with a better idea of the story that makes you who you are. And, in turn, they’ll learn a bit about who they are as well.