Attitude of Gratitude vs Dying With The Most Toys

A friend posted a cartoon on Facebook questioning Black Friday. One of the two characters asks, "Don't you think it's ironic that Americans spend the most money on new things the day after they say they're grateful for what they already have?" His partner in stick figure crime replies, "No."

Personally, I'm left wondering where the heck this entire country's "attitude of gratitude" is; not to mention where any semblance of it demonstrated on Thanksgiving Day disappeared to in a matter of a scant few hours. As a nation on Thursday, most people were off to celebrate God's blessings on us as individuals & on the country as a whole. Parades marched through NYC & Chicago, families gathered for feasting, friends met to catch up with their fellows whom they hadn't seen in a while. Positive activities all, one would suppose.

Enter corporate greed.

Because of the state of this nation's economy, this year retailers expanded their so-called Black Friday shopping specials to the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Too many to enumerate began their so-called Black Friday sales in the late evening hours of Thursday (10:00 p.m. or later) & remained open during the overnight hours so people could shop at 2:00, 3:15, or 4:35 a.m. By the time Friday dawned on the East Coast, some greedy slob on the West Coast had coated a crowd of people with pepper spray in a San Fernando Valley Wal-Mart, all to facilitate her grab of an X-Box (which she may or may not have paid for) ahead of other shoppers.

THIS is THANKFULNESS? For what, precisely? For a gadget that will be largely ignored by about July 2012 because that woman's kids are "bored" with it? An attitude of gratitude is NOT what I've ever seen demonstrated by "shoppers" who made national headlines for this act & others as criminal to other human beings, such as the snatching of a new television set from the shopping cart of an elderly woman, which she, presumably on a fixed income, likely had come to buy at a sale price to replace an old non-DTV model.

Note to the materialistic folks: the person who dies with the most accumulated stuff (purchased on Black Friday or not) still DIES someday--and they CAN'T take all that stuff along!

Armistice Day (better known as Veterans Day)

History tells us that this day became a noteworthy one due to the cessation of hostilities between the parties involved in World War I (also known as "The Great War"). Troops on all sides silenced their weapons on 11/11/18, quite poetically "at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918, though the Treaty of Versailles which "officially" ended the war was not officially signed until June 28, 1919. The United States Congress recognized this on June 4, 1926 and in 1938 11/11 became an official Federal holiday. Bells were rung each year at 11:00 a.m. on 11/11 in honor of the Armistice; it has been described by the author Kurt Vonnegut, who was a POW during World War II, thus:

When I was a boy all the people of all nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind. Armistice Day has become Veteran's Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veteran's Day is not... Armistice Day I will keep. I don't want to throw away any sacred things.

On June 1, 1954, after cessation of hostilities in the "police action" known to us in the USA as the Korean War, President Eisenhower amended the holiday from "Armistice Day" to "Veterans Day." I am inclined to believe as Vonnegut did that the day should be made sacred once again--and never should have lost as much of its symbolism as it evidently has since the early 1950s.

Peyton

Having a dog who blends in with the autumn's auburn scenery makes things interesting when I roll up in the yard every evening. She & the needles shed by the loblolly pines in our yard (commonly referred to around here as "pine straw") are roughly the same shade of orangey-red, so were it not for her barking, whining, & carrying of much darker pine cones in her mouth to greet me, it'd be challenging to find her in the yard. Fortunately, she's not foolish enough (usually!) to jump into the path of the car, so she's safe.

Now that nights here are getting down toward freezing, she wants to go out more often, whereas her buddy Taco the ten pound wonder chihuahua is happy to curl up in his kennel & hide in it until it gets hot outside. (Like THAT'S going to happen on our schedule!) She also likes the snow, which Taco will tentatively tiptoe out into just long enough to do what he has to, sort of like an awkward canine ballerina on pointe.

I can hardly wait to watch her greet the guys when they get here in two weeks...

Standard time again

Woke up just before 7 a.m. "new" time (after all, the clocks "fell back" overnight!) & am now cozy at the computer with the chihuahua on my lap, shivering in the 70-ish degree house. The 12 year old is also up & watching a video in her room pending my preparation of our breakfast, which I really should get going on if we're to be on time for church.

This afternoon will be busy for me, what with paperwork to be caught up for work (the perpetual project!) & then attendance at a bonfire/hayride with said 12 year old early this evening (right about the time hubby is due to arrive home from his extended field trip with his students).

I'm grateful that with the early rise, I've already run a load of laundry that will be folded & put away before noon (possibly before church if it dries soon enough) & will be able to have the daughters complete the relatively few household chores for me while I'm working later. 16 & 12 can both handle vacuum cleaners, so it's THEIR turn!

Fawkes, Fires, & Frost

I'm sure folks in my native environs recall the summertime TV commercials for the now-defunct Crazy Eddie chain, during which their screaming mimi announcer went on about how the air was hot & sweltering & that meant it was time for their Christmas sale. (Their catch phrase was that their prices were "IN-SANE!") I'm approximately that energized today because, it being Guy Fawkes' Day (a British minor holiday with its own poem I'll share in a moment), it's FINALLY cool enough to NOT be humid, to NEED a little heat in the car early in the morning & in the house during the overnight hours, AND to be able to mow the lawn once in a several week period WITHOUT melting in the process. Hooray for frost!

This is perfect weather for an evening bonfire...which I hope they have on the other side of the Atlantic so all those "pennies for the guy" went into making a proper effigy for each village's celebration. Tonight is the night our British friends launch aerial spectacles to rival our 4th of July; cold outside, yes--but still fun (they tend to serve hot chocolate & other warm beverages at these events). Guy Fawkes himself is best described as a scapegoat, the poor slob who was caught trying to light fuses in executing the s0-called Gunpowder Plot attack on the house of Parliament in London back in 1605 (when James I was to be present to preside at the opening). He & a few other conspirators, after not lighting the fuses & blowing the place to smithereens, were hanged for their crimes, but only "the guy" is burned in effigy every November as a reminder:

"Remember, remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason & plot.

I know no reason the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."

In lieu of a bonfire here, my 16 year old has decided to have friends over for a viewing of V for Vendetta, a more appropriate observance for this side of "the pond."

Attitude of Gratitude & praying for others

Tonight I want to thank my husband, he who through the "accident" of his military posting to our current town of residence, ended up buying our home & getting us to a more moderate climate than the one we left behind. (Much as I grumble about it at times, especially when it's so HOT & HUMID that even if you're in the nude you're overdressed!)

Now that the gratitude's out of the way, time for a word of prayer.

Dear Lord: PLEASE enable those with the skills to do so to restore electric service to those in New Fairfield, Connecticut & other similarly suffering towns up in the Northeast where the power has been out since the storm last Saturday. Give Connecticut Light & Power the ability to make repairs with all possible speed & dispatch so that everyone's lives can return to some sense of "normal," possibly with assistance from their colleagues at United Illuminating & other utility companies in the adjoining states/Canada. Let everyone return to their jobs, see to their daily routines, & address needs left unattended during the storm's aftermath. Let those who have the ability to do so add copiously to their wood stove supplies from the downed trees and limbs that they may not freeze later on. Be with those who need support in this time of trial and help them to patiently bear whatever burden is upon them. Amen

As recently as this morning, I was told that the ENTIRE TOWN had no power; in reading news reports online later in the morning, I found New Fairfield wasn't alone, but had plenty of company in that circumstance (e.g. Seymour). I am grateful to not be there for this adventure in indoor camping, but at the same time my heart goes out to those who are, because I HAVE done it in the past.