No matter what...I am thankful for the carbs!

Ahhh...Thanksgiving, that blessed holiday where family's get together to give thanks for their loved ones, health, jobs, homes, food, dogs.... The list goes on and on.

We all know how it goes.

We sit down to a beautiful meal of turkey, mashed potatos, yams, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, and maybe some type of green vegetable that holds some nutritional value. We give thanks to God for the bounty and then proceed to be gluttons as we stuff our faces with serving after serving. We walk away from the table with that "just kill me now" feeling, but still fear a heartattack in the coming hours.

Why do we do this?

Is it in the name of feasting and celebration? Or is there something deeper behind our "day of carbs."

Maybe Thanksgiving has become a day of rest for Americans.

As Christians we understand that we are supposed to rest each Sunday--rest from work and a long with that the everyday demands of life. American life is not built for rest though. In a nation where efficiency and the bottom line are number one, rest is almost a foreign word. But it is one that is remembered by all each year on Thanksgiving.

Yes, we work and work and work to make the food, but around family and friends baking and roasting don't seem hard labor. It is at and after the feast, however, that the real resting begins.

Where, but in America, are women (and men alike) so put upon to make themselves thin and beautiful--to the point of self destruction. So many Americans are on diets year-round jumping from "The Zone" or "Weight Watchers" to "Jenny Craig" or "The South Beach Diet" every few months.

On Thanksgiving this is all gone.

Who shows up to Thanksgiving on a diet? No one! And anyone who does bring their Jenny Craig meal or the organic salad to a carb infested table is severely mocked by all in attendance.

This is the American way of saying we need a break from pleasing others-it is time to please ourselves and have a day of pure selfish gluttony. For most it is not a lifestyle, but one day a year where we all get to say, "To hell with it, give me another helping of mashed potatoes and stuffing; Bring on the carbs!"