Dark Shadows
Charlie Earl
This day,
the one following Thanksgiving Day, has become the largest consumer-oriented
shopping day of the year. In many respects that is not a good thing. Clearly
our sluggish economy can use a boost, but at what price? Is it wise to add huge
sums of consumer debt to our precarious public and private debt totals? Also
our economy has become so reliant on consumer spending that producers and
retailers feel compelled to cram nearly a year’s worth of productivity, income
and profits into a short five-week period. There are many businesses and
industries that are seasonal in nature, but it seems to me that having such a
huge portion of our retail sales concentrated in a narrow time frame is rather
risky.
Next year
our nation will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Thanksgiving Day as an official national
holiday. The joyful activity will probably begin with door-busting sales at Best Buy, Target and Sears as the Black
Friday phenomenon takes over Thursday. While Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation was
issued in the midst of the War Between the States to seek and praise the
guidance of God, the sesquicentennial version will be glitzy, less thoughtful
and generally void of spiritual introspection. Sadly, some people will spend
their day of thanksgiving in pup tents and on air mattresses while securing a
favored spot in the line of humanity waiting for a store to open. Others will
gorge themselves with copious amounts of food and drink, and many will be
watching NFL football.
Confession
is good for the soul so I must admit that I’m a football fanatic. At 5 feet 8
inches tall and a svelte 155 pounds it is difficult to understand my
infatuation with the game, but I do appreciate the mano y mano aspect when merged with the overlying strategic chess match.
Even I, though, am somewhat taken aback by the wall-to-wall array of games.
Back in the day (crotchety old man’s voice) there was one game…the Detroit
Lions, then the Cowboys muscled in, and now there are three .. or more with
college games added. In addition… the Ohio State Buckeye seniors experienced
their traditional “Senior Tackle” on Thursday. Too much football and too little
giving thanks.
Just like
many of our special days (Independence Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day and
Christmas) Thanksgiving Day and the following weekend has been transformed from
its original purpose into a time for eye-bugging, belly-busting consumption.
The spiritual, the sacred and the sentimental have been sacrificed on the altar
of acquisition and avarice. The dark and overbearing clouds of Black Friday
have overwhelmed our days of reflection. The title of this column, “Dark Shadows,” springs from the
television program of the late 1960’s. One of the leading characters was
“Barnabus,” a vampire. In my warped world view I see Black Friday and its
attendant repercussions similar to Barnabus. The consuming acquisitive
mentality has corrupted that which should have a deeper meaning, and is sucking
the blood from our national life. Thanksgiving Day was intended to be a time
for prayer, for giving thanks and for praise. Because we do not do those things
as we should, perhaps we may discover that we have become unworthy. We truly
are living in the dark shadows. Let’s pray that we do not linger too long or it
may be too late. Have a bright weekend.
P.S. I must
confess … for the first time in my life I left home at 11:30pm last night to
attend 2 midnight store openings. After standing in line for 20 minutes with
some well-mannered, happy people, I made my purchases (Plus one “rain check”)
and was home by 1:30am. Been there, done that, never to be repeated. Now my
rigid routine is totally out of whack.
Charlie Earl
No comments:
Post a Comment