Black Friday
Dr. Pfister’s 2020 Thanksgiving table was less crowded than normal due to COVID-19
Well we weathered the emotional challenges of this year’s unique Thanksgiving celebration…
My family has gotten together for over 60 years at my mom’s place, first the farm and now Emerald Lakes, with an average of 45 to 60 attendees. As I’ve written before, Thanksgiving - in most of my family’s minds - is the best holiday of all… no gifts, no major decorations, just show up and eat!
I’m sorry I’m writing about yesterday, but I’m still working through my disappointment as I come to the realization that many of my relatives only come to Ohio for Thanksgiving and it won’t be until next year that I see them again. And none of us are getting any younger. It is what it is. We’ll have stories to tell at future gatherings and we need to move on.
And moving on brings us to today, Black Friday, the antithesis of Thanksgiving!
So I’ll begin today and touch on the subject several times before Santa comes down the chimney. If Thanksgiving is the celebration of the warmth of family togetherness, Christmas has become the celebration of gifts and the hyperbole of decorations. I find it quite interesting that Black Friday (which has become the starting gun shot to begin the race to buy everything on the hallowed want list for those we love) is the juxtaposition to Thanksgiving. In fact, in years past, we have had to move up the Thanksgiving dinner hour in order that some of our “loved ones” could get in line for the midnight door-opening specials. Don’t tell me you don’t know anyone who, including yourself, got up at 2 am to get into a Walmart, Kohl’s, or Dick’s sidewalk line to get a door buster deal on everything from underwear to widescreen TVs. The stores had to have police protection and traffic cops to direct the crowds! And if you were one of the lucky ones to secure a Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts set, or purple furbee, pet rock, or cabbage patch kid, well, you were guaranteed in your mind it was going to be a great Christmas! The problem (one of many) with early shopping was that the beloved list of loved ones had the uncanny reputation of changing several times during the month. Thus, it inevitably became a fluid merry-go-round of stress, arguments, and depression. One or all of these human emotions are experienced throughout the holiday season, especially if any of the desired items become sold out or they appear on the dreaded back-order list. Watching those around me (even my wife) freaking out about not finding the specific x-y-z desired toy-of-the-year for whoever, really drives home the fact that many of us have lost the true meaning of Christmas.
This year, however, I have definitely seen a change in attitude and an evaporation of self-centeredness in those around me. Yes, our families are getting older and Harry Potter wands don’t hold the luster they used to, but Covid has shown us that we can truly live with less. And I’m not pointing fingers at others. I love a beautiful shotgun or ultra-light bamboo fly rod and most of my family - years ago - was sure that I worked only to go to Africa and be with my kindred spirits. I won’t lie, I miss Africa and its wildlife deeply, but when life or death conditions hover close to home, you need to reconfigure your life’s choices.
This year is definitely an epiphany on what truly matters in one’s life and how simplification can be good for the soul. The materialistic treadmill can creep up over the years and really take control of your thoughts and actions, as if it were a cancer of sorts. Television commercials and magazine ads all fuel the consumer fire to buy, buy, buy. And, in time, it becomes a life style that culminates with Christmas.
Many of us knowingly or unknowingly have been unable to break this grip of materialism. I’m sorry to say that the power of materialism has been so strong for many of us, that it took a stronger force to get our heads facing the Christmas Star. This Christmas Season, let’s make it special; and instead of complaining about what we don’t have, let’s give thanks for what we do have. Let’s reposition our personal priorities and wish list to include gifts from the heart like handmade, handwritten gifts of love, rather than Amazon specials.
And, as Faith Hill asks in her song “Where are You Christmas”, maybe this year, finally, we’ll find the true answer.
Have a joyous holiday weekend and be exuberant and passionate about your life.
- Dr. Pfister