Thanksgiving 2011 is a day that will go down in history; it is a day that will forever change the way we give thanks. It is the day that we showed the world what Americans are really grateful for and how classy, respectful and materialistic we are. It is the day that mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles showed our children what American values are all about.
The lessons we taught our children were successful ones; we showed them every facet of our humanity. We showed them how important it is to get “things” and the lengths that you should go through to get them. We demonstrated by sitting, standing and sleeping in the streets in front of stores for days and weeks to be the first in line. We demonstrated waiting your turn and good sportsmanship by pepper spraying those that obeyed the etiquette of “black Friday shopping”. We showed them that the “end justifies the means” when we pushed and shoved and trampled to get to “the things.” We showed them that the meaning of Christmas and the holiday spirit is about “me and mine” and that saving a few dollars no matter the human cost is the most important lesson of all.
Those of you that are reading this may feel that this sarcastic piece is a sad reflection of where we are heading both as Americans, a society and individuals. Those that see nothing wrong with our journey into the dark pit of neither “no values” likely do not read nor care about that reality. We continue to accept traits of our moralistic decline as the way things are but that is equivalent to seeing the car running heading for the cliff and not exerting any effort to turn the wheel in another direction.
I worry about how our declining values, respect for our fellow man and ourselves has and will continue to affect the children we are raising. It is painfully obvious that many of our children and young adults already are damaged humans because of our insatiable thirst and view of material things and appearances. The blame for that lies not with our children but with the adults that failed them; failed them not by not giving to them, but by giving them more things than guidance, boundaries, values, time and most importantly love. Thanksgiving is a day for loved ones to gather and give thanks for their love and their lives. For millions this year, there was little giving and even less love.
Love is the greatest gift one human being can give to another. Love is also one of life’s most illusive gifts; many of us never fully understand it. Love does mean sometimes having to say you are sorry, love does mean sometimes having to say no, love does means sometimes having to discipline, love does mean sometimes that we may make our children a little unhappy now so that they have a better chance of real, self respectful, self valued, humanitarian, honest and balanced material happiness in the future.
On Friday, during an interview on the news a Macy official said that based on the result of their sales and customers reactions, midnight openings at Macy will likely be the trend moving forward for all Macy’s stores, how sad for Macy’s, our children, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I imagine the offspring of the founders of Macy’s are sitting in their mansions with their servants. They will likely be very pleased when the remnants of our Thanksgiving 2011 make it way to their bottom line in their bank accounts and stock portfolios. I will remember this thanksgiving and I will count my blessings. In my journal I have made an entry that reads “It was the day the turkey day did not look so appetizing and the dressing did not taste too good; it had the sage, poultry seasoning, celery, chicken stock and grandma’s cornbread but it was missing the most special spice LOVE.”