Black Friday

Party Progressive
Originally uploaded by Wal-Mart Movie.

Warning: The following is a Statler and Waldorf style balcony rant

Today is the day known as Black Friday, so called because it traditionally marks the season when retailers make their biggest profits. The term comes from the time when ledgers were kept by hand with red indicating loss and black indicating profit. Being the biggest shopping day of the year, retailers are eager to entice would be shoppers with advertisements of great discounts and the implicit promise that their lives will be ever so much better and they will be loved ever so much more if they shower their loves ones with gifts.

While I'm all for gifts (no one loves opening presents like I do!), I have to think that the whole circus surrounding the day after Thanksgiving is pretty antithetical to anything that Christmas is supposed to be. There were actualy brawls in some stores today. BRAWLS. I woke up this morning to images of shoppers scuffling Walmart and people being trampled as they rushed into a department store. What a nice way to kick of the the beginning of Advent.

I don't know what's wrong with some people. Call me crazy, but I can't help but think God is probably not so in favor of us beating each other for first crack at $40 off a laptop. I know I'm not Pat Robertson and therefore am not qualified to speak to God's will, but I can't help thinking this is not it. It seems like there has to be more to life (or holidays) than smackdowns and the acquisition of stuff.

The older I get, the more little things like just enjoying the holidays with friends and family come to mean to me. To prove this, I unwittingly (albeit successfully) participated in Buy Nothing Day today. True, this was mostly because Buy Nothing Day coincided with Why Bother to Get Dressed When I Could Lounge Around on the Couch Reading and Eating Pizza Day, but I like to feel smugly superior for it nonetheless.