Turkeys and Thanksgiving

Last week was Thanksgiving. Surprise. I’m sure no one had noticed. Thanksgiving today is far different than my childhood. Growing up we would gather up the casseroles and climb in the ’62 Ford and head to Mama Bea’s. If you have read much of my stuff, Mama Bea may seem as familiar to you as your own grandmother. Mama Bea, as you know, lived in Shake Rag which was out from Okolona which was down the road from Tupelo which is where Elvis was born.
Mama Bea and Daddy Freeman raised a variety of animals on their farm. They had the usual cows and chickens but they also had some unusual animals. They had peafowls. Peafowls are those beautiful birds that you usually see at zoos as they strut around with their million brilliantly colored “feather-eyes” staring back at you. They raised quail for a while. This was started one day when Daddy Freeman and I were walking across the pasture and came upon a quail’s nest filled with little ones. He took them back and raised them to adults and pretty soon had quite a covey.
They also had turkeys, although they weren’t around as much as the chickens or the guinea (funny looking fowls from Africa). I never could decide if turkeys were smart or dumb. They wouldn’t nest close to the house like the chickens would. They wandered off across the pasture and into the woods. If you wanted to know where they were nesting, you had to follow them. As soon as we would see a hen heading out, we would follow, eventually finding the nest. As I recall, Daddy Freeman would then go back at a time when the hen was off the nest and get the eggs. He would take the eggs and put them under a chicken that was setting (for you city folk that’s what a hen does when she is incubating eggs). This was necessary because if the turkey eggs were left in the woods, they would be robbed by foxes or raccoons before they ever hatched. But Daddy Freeman wouldn’t just take the turkey eggs, he would also leave behind fake eggs. Something to fool the hen into thinking that all the eggs were there and the nest was undisturbed. Otherwise, off she would go to make a new nest. So, the turkey was smart enough to hide her nest but when it came to the eggs . . . hmmmm, not so much.
Now, I wouldn’t want to compare people with turkeys entirely, although I have known a few turkeys in my life, but, I do see a similarity. As we gathered around the table this year there were many thanksgivings offered up for houses, prosperity, cars, jobs, football teams (not me) and a host of other pleasures that we surround ourselves with. No doubt, all blessings. But really, aren’t they more like those fake eggs in the turkey’s nest? Don’t they replace what is valuable in our thinking with false comforts and security? What really is most important? Family? Friends? It really is a much shorter list than we may think, if we stop to think. Let’s give thanks to God for what is really important and not let others define what is important for us. We may or may not have full tables, but at the very least, we’ll have full hearts.