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It’s the right thing to do and it sucks.


When I was a kid, we went to my uncle’s house for Thanksgiving every year, which was pretty cool because he was the caretaker of a 4H camp. It was deserted in November, so we had free run of the place. We’d explore the stables, skip stones on the pond, try to get into the cabins (usually locked) and the mess hall (inexplicably not locked). We learned how to drive by being turned loose with the minivan on the one long road through the property. And we ate pie. Real Norman Rockwell stuff.

I say all this to illustrate that I understand why a lot of Americans have warm fuzzies about Thanksgiving and tradition. I do, too. But it is just a day. There isn’t any law of nature that makes turkey and pie and family unavailable to you on days other than the third Thursday in November.

If there were no end in sight for the pandemic, I’d understand why so many otherwise conscientious people are doing Thanksgiving travel and in-person gatherings. But there are vaccines on the horizon. Yes, it’s going to be months before they’re available to everyone. But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Why would you risk the health and lives of other people when you could just hold on a little longer and then have the happiest Thanksgiving celebration ever in May or July or whenever this is over?

Full disclosure: I haven’t spent Thanksgiving with my family since I moved to Kentucky. NBC is still airing the National Dog Show on Thursday, which means my most concrete plan for the holiday remains unchanged by COVID. But I have made the journey home for every Christmas since I moved away, and until the last few days, I had been planning to do it again this year. But now it’s becoming clear that I really shouldn’t. I should wait until May or July or whenever so that I can reunite with my family without that gray cloud of worry hanging over our heads.

It’s the right thing to do and it sucks.

I don’t know what I will do on Christmas day by myself, but there’s a fair chance it will involve decorating my animals for a whimsical holiday photo shoot. It’s like they say: When life hands you a deadly global pandemic, make Dog and Pony ContentTM for the ‘gram.

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