This Thanksgiving Was a Harbinger of Old Age

Last year, Karaganda hosted a massive Thanksgiving celebration, to which all the volunteers were invited. In was a lot of fun and extremely memorable. At the end of the lunatic weekend, they nominated Bryan and me to host the 2005 Thanksgiving in Kokshetau. (At the time, we were given to believe that this was a venerable old tradition, but this year we learned that they only started it last year. That's ok.)

Bryan and I, not wanting celebrating volunteers violently unwinding in the streets of our personal town, rented a sanatorium where we could be loud and crazy without bothering anyone. We arranged buses, planned a menu, bought all the food, made a budget, and arranged a tour of a local nature reserve. Everything went without incident, I think everyone had a good time, and there was no trouble of any kind.

In every event like this, there is a balance to be struck between memorability and calm. Catastrophes, large and small, are what make events unique in your memory, and are what make reflecting on your life fun. At the same time, catastrophes seem locally undesireable, especially when you're planning an event. In short, they carry long-term value but with a short-term disincentive. Thanksgiving Karagnada was exremely memorable, and I'm afraid Thanksgiving Kokshetau, as nice as it was, will not be.

I see the fact that I'm ok with this as a harbinger of old age. My values in the past have been inclined to catastrophe, and I think five years ago I would have been disappointed that our Thanksgiving went off without something sticky and nasty to make it cling to the pages of history. However, now, I feel very satisfied that we pulled off a well-organized, incidentless Thanksgiving that nobody will talk about a year from now. Well done, Kokshetau!