On Leaving Part 2

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. I clearly remember my very first Thanksgiving here in the US. That was the day I arrived in 1986. I was allowed a brief stopover in San Francisco to join Mama and Jim before I flew to Temple Texas where I was assigned.
I found it difficult to relate to the turkey Thanksgiving celebration - I had to brush up on my Pilgrim History.
That was 20 years ago and here I am "celebrating" another Thanksgiving. We have a small community of Filipinos here in our town. A couple of medical professionals, professors from the university and a lot of children. We have our own dishes to prepare. The regular turkey and ham will be the staple fare but the table will be filled more of the Pilipino specials. You can pluck the Pilipino out of the Philippines but you can not erase the pagka-Pinoy out of the Pilipino ( or something to that effect).
Most of us "oldies" have assimilated and adapted the American way of life. We in fact have been "mainstreamed". Our children might have the slight "twang". We might also be sounding like our neighbors (heaven forbid). Does that make us less Filipino? Not one single bit of iota.
Remember the character Shylock from the Shakespeare play Merchant of Venice? He was a Jew -

Shylock:
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands,
organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same
food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases,
heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter
and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If
you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the
rest, we will resemble you in that.

This was way back Maryknoll High School era but still very much applicable to this day. Walang pinagkaiba ang kapit-bahay ko sa akin. Nasa sa akin na if I would want to retain my pagka-Pinoy. Ang pinagkaibahan lang - nauna sila sa akin dito.
Happy Thanksgiving - Dios Ti Agngina