Time to Stop

I'm sure you've all seen this story. A Wal-Mart clerk died during the opening rush of shoppers into his store for the "Black Friday" sales. Different news companies are reporting this story differently; some blame the customers for knocking him down. Some say the man had a heart attack. However it happened, what came next shows the depths to which consumers in our country have descended. Some customers stepped over the fallen man in their rush to shop. Other store workers attempting to help him were hurt by the pushing crowd. Shoppers who found items they wished to purchase were angry and refused to leave when told the store was closed.

What on earth?

All this for a holiday supposed to celebrate the coming of the light in the midst of the dark?

I feel like the attention frugality is getting these days is the real ray of light in the darkness. It's like a drink of cold, pure water after a night spent eating and drinking way too much. Like the serenity of a desert sunrise after the neon glare of a Tokyo business junket.

We make ourselves sick with our excess. It's time to stop.

How about taking a day off from shopping? How about a week? How about deciding that for 24 hours at least you will not even think about the presents that need to be bought/wrapped/shipped/stuck under the tree?

It will still get done. You know it will. So what if they're late? So what if you don't spend as much or they're not perfect? It doesn't matter. None of it matters. Christmas doesn't matter. There; I've said it.

Somebody died today.

That's what matters. Now gather your family around you. Hug them. And start talking about the changes in this world that you'd like to make.