Thanks? Doorbusters started at 6 pm. That’s 6 pm today, Thanksgiving day. No wait, nevermind, we don’t even close on Thanksgiving anymore. Get here with your turkey and cranberry sauce wrapped in a soft taco shell and carrying a zip lock container of gravy for dipping. This is totally what thanksgiving is! How much money can I spend save and who do I have to trample to save it?
Have you seen the “Black Friday” reports? People getting into knock down drag out fights, fingernails, knives – even the item they so covet sometimes – whatever is handy to get the precious.
What happened to family gathering around the table. Maybe that is a Hallmark moment that doesn’t exist anymore. But maybe it should. Most of us have family that is scattered across the country. Maybe it’s not possible to make the trip to Grandma’s house this year so it’s just you and the spouse or room-mate or the traditional holiday treat and your favorite movie. Whatever the situation you find yourself in, it is a day to give thanks, reflect, remember, and cherish. It may seem like you may not have things to be thankful for: perhaps you didn’t get that raise you were counting on or your car broke down and the bus is your new best friend, but I think if you take a good look at that holiday food, life ain’t as bad as it could be.
What is bad is that the retail industry has taken what should be a day, one day besides Christmas (because even Wal-Mart is closed on Christmas) of family time, down time, giving thanks or playing your favorite move for the hundredth time, and turned it into “pitch a tent on a sidewalk or sit huddled in lawn chairs freezing half to death to get the latest and greatest gadget so your Christmas will be perfect” day. Yeah, thanks.
So are we going to completely give up Thanksgiving? It is up to us to say no. I did not, and will not go out shopping tonight to get the two dollar sweater. If these companies want our money that two dollar sweater will be available at 9 am on Friday. Let me have my one day to say thank you – thank you to God, thank you to my family, thank you to my country – before I have to start frantically planning the next big commercial outing.
Friday I may have to go buy sweatpants to accommodate my Thanksgiving gut. But that’s Friday. Not at six in the evening on Thanksgiving Day.
Here’s hoping you and yours had your time together too, today. At home with each other, or separated by distance but together in your hearts. Tomorrow … see you at Wal-Mart.
Oh and by the way: thanks!