My sister in law would never serve a Tofurky. She probably doesn’t even know what tofu is. But there would be a major revolution in my family without the turkey. And she’d never be allowed to cook Thanksgiving again.

I actually like tofurkey - it’s gotten much better over the years and you can buy vegan stuffing and gravy now too that have great flavor. I bring my own when going to relatives for thanksgiving.

As much as I would like to ask her “what the heck are you thinking?” I wouldn’t do that. It would certainly be disappointing that she didn’t tell anyone in advance she was fixing a tofurkey. I would try it and not make a fuss if I didn’t like it then I would fix my own turkey/Thanksgiving meal over the weekend. I would definitely decline any more invitations to Thanksgiving dinner at her house.

It would only confirm what we already knew about her. Freak.

My sister is vegetarian and I am a major carnivore. When she comes to my place I respect that and make sure there are two or three dishes she can eat according to her beliefs. When I go to hers, although she will not serve any type of meat, she makes sure that there are a lot of tasty meatless choices for me. We don’t try to change each other, we just make arrangements to accomodate the other. We’re more important to each other than a silly food fight.

Some time ago I went to a Buddhist friend’s home for buffet and was surprised to see thinly sliced turkey on a plate. Helping myself to a few slices of it, I was totally amazed to find that it was tofu–the texture wasn’t quite right, but it sure seemed to me that the taste was.

I’m now a believer.

We served a wide variety of Native American vegan foods, not feeling any need to eat a dead-animal substitute. But we included a Tofurkey for guests who wanted the whole faux “traditional” American experience. Our Native American foods included both wild and domesticated foods that were used by the Native Americans: maize, beans, squash, mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes, quinoa, chia, chocolate, wild onions, wild sage, pine nuts, juniper berries, wild Concord grape juice, acorn bread, sweet potatoes, and a peppers.

We gave thanks for the 80% of globals foods provided by Native American know how and dedication to Mother Earth. We gave blessings for all the wonderful foods like Tofurkey that enable us to make better use of the world’s resources, as the great spirit wishes.

Mahalo!

Graciousness works every time no matter what the circumstances.