Complicating Thanksgiving with BLACK FRIDAY
Have our lives become so consumed by material things that we have forgotten where true happiness and contentment orignated? As I sit here recoverig from the effects of the tryptophan following my expected three hour nap after our family fest, I am reminded of past Thanksgiving holidays where I spent countless hours standing in a line in the freezing cold, (yes, in Florida 60 degress is FREEZING cold) in the wee hours of the morning, herded together with fellow Black Friday hopefuls, strategically mapping out my plan of action once the doors open. Those days have long gone but I can still remember the excitement I felt anticipating the "great deals" on electronics, home essentials, and most importantly 60-75% of apparel.
How has a day such as Thanksgiving where religion and politics have no bearing on how we choose to celebrate family, friends, togetherness, and appreciation of one another, turned into a mass frenzy where camping out in front of the local Best Buy or Walmart? This frenzy now trumps the excitement of setting the table just right as you sneak pieces of the turkey, laughing at the corney jokes told by family members over the dinner table, or simply taking in the auroa of having the house filled with loved ones who have traveled near and far just to spend a few moments, a few hours, or a few days to reconnect.
I find it interesting that many of the products advertised on Black Friday, are marketed as items that will supposedly make our lives easier or less complicated however, in contrast, they often end up taking up space in closets, kitchen cabinets, or worse, the dredded "land of the lost" in our home...the garage. I can honestly recall one item in the last five years which I purchased during a Black Friday event that I continue to use today and that is a $5 wireless bluetooth speaker I saw in passing and thought it was cute.
At the end of the day, in a world where people are hungry to find happiness, the search often ends quite simply where it all began for us as humans beings...and that's with family. The quality of our relationships and the people we allow to inhabit our memories is and will always be our source of belonging, strength, and most importanly, LOVE. Its as SIMPLE as that!
Happy Thanksgiving!
