A few of us went to Hurd Orchard, in Holly, NY for their spectacular annual Thanksgiving Tastings where they prepare a feast of 22 homemade recipes. They then serve it in their beautifully decorated barn by candlelight. The recipes are prepared using fruit from the farm, and other ingredients from local farms, each with their own specialty. There was pumpkin soup, stuffing in little tiny pears, sweet potatoes with coconut, ginger cake, fresh turnips and carrots, and apples prepared every way imaginable. Every dish was a bite of loveliness, and I kept saying, “Oh my god, this is so fucking good!!”
Fall harvest is a time to be thankful for great food and great sex. Coincidentally, these two go hand in hand. Autumn fruits and vegetables are loaded with the building blocks of positive mood, strong pleasure signaling and abundant blood flow. An apple a day keeps bad sex away, because apples, among other nutrients, have a lot of flavonoids, which, according to research, are great for mood and for blood flow. Pumpkins have SO many antioxidants that help pleasure signaling, and nutrients linked to emotional wellness, reduced anxiety and positive mood.
A feast is a lot to be thankful for. I grew up with a teenage mom who was always working several jobs to support us. But being poor in other parts of the world is a completely different experience, where people routinely go to sleep hungry, including little kids. Most of us here is the U.S. live lives of excess and indulgence by world standards. We go to Starbucks and get a $5 cup of coffee with a muffin, and then throw half of it out on our way out. In contrast, most people have to work VERY hard for $5.00, even here.
Our minds aren’t weighed with the heavy burden of not knowing where our next meal is coming from. Instead our attention can be free to enjoy the intimacy of a kind lover, which is one of the finest pleasures of the human experience.
We must be grateful this holiday that we can enjoy fucking, feasting, and, for the luckiest, love.
With how fortunate we are, perhaps we could consider a simple sacrifice that might help someone struggling to meet basic needs. One place that comes to mind is Yemen, which is undergoing a severe humanitarian crisis and could use a kind helping hand. There are a lot of great organizations working on this effort.
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