I'm looking at a painting from 1943.

You've seen this painting, too, in all likelihood.

Maybe not in the Saturday Evening Post when it was originally published, but maybe

reproduced in a coffee table book or magazine, or framed and hung on a wall, or here and

there on social media,

or even in the many parody and satire versions that have appeared over the years.

The artist is Norman Rockwell,

and the painting depicts a family around a dinner table as a holiday feast is getting started.

The painting belongs to a series of four that Rockwell created to depict the four freedoms

promoted by President Roosevelt.

Freedom of worship, freedom from fear, freedom of speech, and, the subject and title

of this painting, freedom from want.

Whatever its political or patriotic origins, the painting has gone on to become an iconic

representation for Americans

of holiday dinners. At the very center of the painting is a large stuffed turkey on a silver

platter, large enough to feed the 11 people we see seated around the table, with leftovers.

We're watching the family matriarch place the turkey onto the table, which is also set with a bowl of fruit, celery, pickles, cranberry sauce, and a covered dish,

which, if we had to guess, would probably contain potatoes or a casserole of some kind.

This is the traditional Christmas dinner, a turkey and stuffing,

potatoes are squash and green beans or Brussels sprouts.

Gravy and bread and cranberry sauce and some kind of fruit pie for dessert. And that's the

way it's been for nearly 200 years. But why? The story of how we got here is one of ancient

...