Thanksgiving & Black Friday

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house again this year for the 2nd time.  I was thinking to myself as we were getting ready that Thanksgiving is perhaps one of the most spiritual holidays of the year.  By that I mean that celebrating it, in terms of actually taking stock of the things we're thankful for.  It's a distinctly inner-life, character building experience that's good for the soul.

Sometimes I think Thanksgiving in our culture seems to be crowded out on all sides.  We're still eating Halloween candy in our house, and Christmas lights have already been put up in our neighborhood.  Each year, stores have been starting their Black Friday shopping earlier & earlier, and this year it started on Thanksgiving Day in some places.  Walmart ran an ad campaign encouraging people to shop on Thanksgiving evening.  Waiting until Friday isn't even a necessity anymore; saving an entire day to give thanks consequently is also no longer necessary.  I'm a bit discouraged that we as a culture seem to keep pushing more and more toward consumerism and consumption.  Sometimes it seems like we as a society are saying "let's hurry up & get this thankfulness stuff out of the way so we can get to the shopping!".  A couple of weeks ago, @badbanana posted this bit of sarcastic funny: "CAN'T WAIT TO BUST OPEN SOME DOORS AND TRAMPLE THE SLOW & WEAK. #thankful #blessed".  I laughed pretty hard at that one.

Not that I judge anyone for going shopping on this day or any day.  I'm less concerned about what individuals do than I am about what our society as a whole says about its priorities.  Getting the best deal possible on the latest & greatest gadget is a great thing, but it isn't as great of a thing as a life of inner thankfulness for what one already has.  I generally avoid shopping on this day, and I won't on principle go shopping on Thanksgiving Day itself.  But that's me, and it's not everyone's choice.  I don't like Black Friday for what it says about us as a society, but at the same time I'm not going to go passing judgement on any one individual for buying stuff either.  The Huffington Post today has a piece today called "Black Friday vs. Jesus", which shows pictures of shoppers next to quotes from the New Testament that talk about the problems of materialism.  Although I generally agree with the sentiment, it's a bit over the top & judgmental   Jesus certainly wants us to live a life free from the trappings of too much stuff, but it's hard to not get the message from this piece that if you go shopping today that you're a materialistic person, and that's  a pretty simplistic and false message.  I know plenty of people who actually like Black Friday shopping (not something I personally can appreciate!) who aren't like that.

It is, on the other hand, disturbing that our culture places so much emphasis on stuff, and not nearly so much on living a life of gratitude.  The fact that our biggest consumption day of the year comes right after our biggest day of thanks of the year does seem to send a mixed message.  It's one thing to get a good deal and save some money, but it's another thing completely when we focus so much on the getting that we forget anything else - like the people around us or the things we already have.