Moose Day; Family day

[owlmoose]

Happy Moose Day! (Not familiar with Moose Day? Explanation here.) Today is also the newly discovered holiday of Wolfnoote, which celebrates the spirit of dogs. A fine idea. Although we didn't celebrate, exactly, there were three dogs in attendance at family dinner, so I feel the spirit was appropriately observed

My family gathering was fun. We were under strict orders not to talk about politics; my cousin, who hosted, said it's "because we all agree and are just preaching to the choir", but it came out halfway through the meal that her real reason is that her sister's new boyfriend is a conservative Republican, and L wanted to avoid arguments. Sigh... but it's her house and also I didn't even know the guy existed until I met him today, so I decided to respect the host's wishes. This time. If he sticks around the family for long, and/or says anything super rude and offensive, I may not be able to comply. Considering that politics is one of the main topics of family conversation at our gatherings, I was curious about what other things we'd find to talk about. It went pretty well, all things considered.

The apple pie came out very well. The pumpkin pie was a little over-spiced -- if I make this recipe again, I'll definitely cut back on the ginger and maybe also on the cinnamon and nutmeg.

Friendsgiving tomorrow!

Comments

[lassarina]

oof. ._. My mother has banned politics from family gatherings, because we are not all on the same side, and as someone who gets anxiety-sick when people are fighting in my vicinity I appreciate it, but also. Ugh.

[owlmoose]

It's just so hard to think of it as "just politics" any more, you know? Given how it's affecting people's lives.

I've gotten pretty spoiled, because the family I see at gatherings are mostly liberal Democrats to farther left, so the debates we have are on governing style and policy specifics, not things like whether all people deserve equal rights. I realize how very lucky I am in this respect.

[lassarina]

Yeah, it feels much more direct and impactful to me now (which is a privilege, of course; I've always been a white woman of moderate means in a solid-blue state, so I was always relatively safe.)

My mom and dad are center-left. My husband is a libertarian (an actual consistent one, not a techbro lolbertarian) and while he and I disagree profoundly and sometimes loudly about how one accomplishes things, we do actually agree on the ideal end-state for society/the world (people are safe from rule-of-the-strong, everyone has food/shelter/clothing/education/health care), which makes it work. But every single one of our friends is liberal Democrat to way left, and he often feels, I think, crushed and dismissed as intrinsically Wrong And Bad (because the left can be just as bad about that as the right), and so it sometimes gets fraught.

My grandmother's housemate is a racist asshat and a bully, and unfortunately she lives in Florida so I partially blame her for 2016 (and 2018), and in large part the political ban is so that I don't absolutely throw the fuck down with the housemate--that in itself wouldn't be a problem, but she would take it out on my grandmother, and I refuse to countenance that. I do call out shit she says that's awful because I refuse to let it pass, but I don't start the fights, ever.