Welcome to Roon Soup, a weekly podcast about magic, culture and the paranormal.

My name is Gordon and I shall be your host.

Something a bit different this week.

It'll just be me talking about Thanksgiving and how we think about the past.

And I guess I can start. and how we think about the past.

And I guess I could start by thinking about the recent past.

And what Thanksgiving looks like from the outside

with the possible exclusion of Canada.

In my time in London it was more prominent than I expected and it's sort of an indication I suppose that you know

you know quote unquote American culture is is very transatlantic and

it's certainly more prominent in the UK than it is here in the upside down and I know a few Americans here as well.

But I think there's sort of more to it. I think there's more of a shared identity thing going there because for instance it was

interesting to see the growing popularity of 4th of July over my years in London considering you know what it commemorates but it looks

fascinating from the outside it's the biggest travel weekend in the richest

country on earth so tens of millions of people move about the country.

The numbers are you know that large that looking at it from the outside it qualifies as you know a biological migration event like

African wilder beasts or swallows returning to Europe it's um in fact it's that big that if you ceased commemorating Thanksgiving, you'd be very tempted to commemorate the commemorating instead.

And in a way we'll return to that idea.

But first I want to think about and think with thanking.

To thank by definition is to look back at a past event or events with gratitude.

I mean you can maybe sign off an email with thanks in advance,

but in general to be thankful is a backwards looking move.

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