Food, Family & Football

Traditional depictions of Thanksgiving usually show turkeys, pilgrims, Native Americans and/or cornucopias. This holidays has sunk deep roots into the psyche of our country. Just think of it, our country has a character causing us to dedicate an entire day to simply expressing gratitude. How unique (and cool) is that?

Since I have been a little boy, Thanksgiving has combined three of my most favorite things in the whole world: Food, Famiily & Football. I don't believe it can get much better. 

Thanksgiving is the best holiday on the calendar.

How Gratitude Can Heal

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. - Melody Beattie

     Living life is risky business. It is a rare person who can make it to adulthood without experiencing some sort of damage.  For some of us, the damage is self-inflicted. But for others, the damage is inflicted by people who are supposed to love us, care for us, protect us. This type of damage is a heinous betrayal, a wounding which comes from people we trust. These are the hurts that are hardest to forgive and forget, for many the wound never heals.

    I have known those carrying around such a terrible hurt. Many times, rather than blame the perpetrator of the crime, they blame themselves. Rather than not being able to forgive the criminal, they can't forgive themselves. Not being able to forgive or forget, the wounding never heals and leads to anger, regret and despair. In this emotional standstill, they become victims yet again. But there is a way to break the cycle, a way out of the emotional morass. Gratitude. 

    There is something about being thankful for the positive things in our life that seems to help us accept the negative events in our lives. Gratitude and appreciation for God's grace seem to make us aware of just how much grace is present in our life and how by accepting that grace, our wounds begin to be healed. By keeping our eyes on the good stuff, we will gradually see the bad stuff recede into the background noise of the past. Where it belongs.

Bread is a Gateway Food

1. More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread eaters.

2. Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests

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3. More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.

4. Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!

5. Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low occurrence of radiation poisoning, skin cancer, food poisoning and octogenarians.

6. Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after only two days.

7. Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter and even cold cuts

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8. Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.

9. Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.

10. Most American bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.