It’s “Thanksgiving Day” here in the United States, a day rife with lies, colonization of the first people on this land, traffic, family trauma and now, a dose of COVID-19. It’s never been a favorite holiday of mine, but I wanted to take a moment and reflect on how immensely thankful I am right now.
First of all, I am most thankful to all of our Okazu patrons, and to thank them properly we’ll be hosting an online Holiday party once again!
This year, as travel and events were complicated by the pandemic, I’m extra-thankful for the manga companies who are bringing out more Yuri! I can no longer effectively keep up, which is a problem, but it’s an amazing problem to have. ^_^ As a result, I’m also super thankful for other folks in the manga news and analysis spaces, Yuri Mother, TomoChoco Podcast, Yuricast, and all the folks at ANN, Crunchyroll News, Yuri Navi, our international friends, like the Yuri/GL Phillipines and all our global Yuri News Network Correspondents. I would not be able to function without you. The global Yuri Network grows every day and it’s an awe-inspiring thing. ^_^
I’m thankful to you, my Okazu readers and writers. I’m very thankful to everyone who has contributed to making Okazu a Yuri resource for almost 20 years. I’m especially thankful to Louise and Pattie, who have made it possible to do videos for Yuri Studio. I know I owe you a video. Which brings me to why you haven’t gotten one yet. ^_^
I’ve been working on cleaning up the office in my house. It fell out of use when we ceased to use desktop computers and became a giant closet. After having it painted and the floors refinished, we’re at the point of redecorating. I wanted to share a few pictures with you. This is still work in progress, as only the doujinshi are in there (and only in temporary situation), and all the books are yet to be dealt with and all the art is waiting to go up on the walls.
Before:
After:
Here is my small original art gallery to go up once the corner shelf is in place.
Today, as I sit, surrounded by a sea of Yuri manga that I will be sorting and re-arranging in order to find homes for all of it – and planning Lucky Boxes for all of the stuff that has been weeded from the boxes and cartons and closets – I am so very thankful for Yuri creators and and for the stories and characters that have given me a lifetime of joy.
I’m most thankful for my wife, Pattie, for everything. I could not do any of it without you.
Thank you all. I promise I’ll get working on that next video shortly! Happy Thanksgiving.
Well, I’m not American, so I don’t know about all the Thanksgiving traditions other than what I might see in movies, but I want to thank you for creating this blog. Personally, I consider it to be the best English-language source on yuri and always come here first of all if I’m interested in a real or possible yuri aspect in a given work. You even discovered a number of works for me, although I had never looked for yuri on purpose before.
Thank you for reading. ^_^
Happy thanksgiving to my American friends! Erica already put it beautifully, but to add my own words: I’m thankful to all Yuri writers, artists, and creatives, inside the commercial industry or out, and my fellow fans, who make our still relatively small community such a vibrant place.
I’m also especially thankful to, among other manga publishers, Seven Seas. Their Yuri lineup as of early 2017 was the first WLW media I read and (along with that other ‘Yuri’ trending today – Yuri on Ice) was crucial to me breaking away from the heteronormative environment I’d been in all my life, and they’ve just been going from strength to strength since – making Yuri not just a part, but *the* centrepiece of their lineup. Looking forward as always to their impending novel announcements!
(on a related note though, looking at the perennial thanksgiving conversation in the US, as a Brit I can’t help but think it would be better to merge it with Christmas and other year end faith holidays – seems it would tick all the same boxes with fewer of the downsides!)
I basically just wish people a happy holiday season, as there are a good dozen various holidays from now through New Year. ^_^
The nice thing about Thanksgiving is that it is the only major holiday we have that isn’t explicitly tied to religion. Problematic origins aside, on a basic level the idea of the day is appealing – a day to reflect with gratitude on what we have, serve others if we can, and enjoy a meal with friends and family. I personally like it because I love to cook and it gives me an opportunity to pull out all the stops!
That said, the bullshit “history” of Thanksgiving that gets taught to children is of course dangerous nonsense. And the day, like every other holiday in our capitalist dystopia, has been turned into a gateway for crass consumerism (“People died in some wars, now go buy a lawnmower!”) But the core concept of it is nice.
I’m grateful for all the hard, even dangerous work people did turning out the vote to, if not save our democracy, at least hit the pause button on the self-destruct timer for a bit. I can take no credit, living in a “safe” liberal state, other than making donations here and there. I owe a lot to people whose names I’ll never hear. All we really got out of it all is a chance, and not a very good one, but I’m very thankful for that chance and even more thankful that we don’t have to figure out a way to endure the alternative.
Agree completely. I absolutely love holidays about reflection, like Yom Kippur or a Thanksgiving Day in the time of plague. It’s the trappings of an overcomplicated day that forces me to travel on the worst travel day of the year I object to. ^_^.