Happy Thanksgiving!

"What is best in life?"
"To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women."

Strong words, aren't they? This quote from  "Conan the Barbarian" seems pretty inappropriate for Thanksgiving, unless you're sociopathically driven, and/or Genghis Khan, but bear with me.

This quote will always remind me of Thanksgiving, because I first saw the movie on Thanksgiving Day, during my first year in college. Two other people and I had wangled invitations to visit a friend's family for the holiday, being too far from home to visit our own families.

The friend's dad graciously agreed to put us all up. Prior to this invasion, he had been planning to cook one Cornish Game Hen each for himself, his daughter, and his son. When the numbers doubled, instead of trying to learn how to cook a turkey, he simply got another three Cornish hens and crammed them all into the oven.

While he wrestled with the birds, the younger generation watched television. For some reason, even though this was in Texas, we didn't watch football, but caught the movie instead.

When I hear this quote, I know the words are about pitiless violence. However, because of the associations the movie holds for me, I always feel a trace of warm nostalgia, for a generous man, a nice family, and good times with good friends.

So I always try to remember: Unless I know the context of somebody's words, I may not really know what is meant.