A Friendly Thanksgiving Rant (that was interrupted by sleep cycle)

An excerpt from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens.

Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head.  No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells.  Oh, glorious.  Glorious!
"What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him.
"Eh?" returned the boy, with all his might of wonder.
"What's to-day, my fine fellow?" said Scrooge.
"To-day?" replied the boy.  "Why, Christmas Day."
"It's Christmas Day!" said Scrooge to himself.  "I haven't missed it.  The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like.  Of course they can.  Of course they can.  Hallo, my fine fellow!"
"Hallo!" returned the boy.
"Do you know the Poulterer's, in the next street but one, at the corner?" Scrooge inquired.
"I should hope I did," replied the lad.
"An intelligent boy!" said Scrooge.  "A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they've sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there -- Not the little prize Turkey: the big one?"
"What, the one as big as me?" returned the boy.
"What a delightful boy!" said Scrooge.  "It's a pleasure to talk to him.  Yes, my buck."
"It's hanging there now," replied the boy.

"Is it?" said Scrooge.  "Go and buy it."
"But sir," said he, "It's Christmas Day! Surely you can't expect the Poulterer to be at work? He is with his family, as all people should be on this sacred holiday. Your crass consumerism is ruining everything that this holiday means and this country stands for! You, sir, are a scoundrel!"

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It is 10:29 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. Judging by the Facebook feeds I am seeing, many of my friends are what I've seen categorized lately as "part of the problem." *My* problem is that I'm not exactly certain what "the" problem is.

Perhaps some people think that "pushing Christmas earlier and earlier" is the problem, but Christmas decorations show up at Hobby Lobby during the Back-to-School season, so none of the stores that are open today are breaking any new ground there.

Also, some people feel that Christmas is "too commercialized." If you think that, then don't buy presents for people for Christmas. I wish I could make stuff for my family (whom, by the way, I don't feel culturally obligated to ply with tokens; it's a good time, and I love thinking about honoring them with an appropriate gift on Christmas, their birthday, or any random Tuesday), but I am not that talented. So I buy things. Is that crass? How much food was at your Thanksgiving meal? Did you grow all of the food yourself? My guess is that most of us bought our food at a store. And that most of us made and ate too much. So why not attack our own "proper" family celebrations as being greedy and contributing to stores' robust sales in a way that just encourages evil corporate ballooning? Gluttonous? Wasteful? Hoarding resources to which less-fortunate people do not have access. I don't feel that way, but I'm just being the devil's advocate. We're all mad at Wal-Mart or other "big box" stores, but if we think they and their shoppers are "part of 'the problem,'" then we need to examine our own culpability.

Others might be upset that the people in retail have to work and be separated from their families on Thanksgiving. Lots and lots of people work on Thanksgiving: healthcare workers, first responders, gas station attendants, hotel staff, cruise ship employees (actually, tons of people in the hospitality industry), people in the armed forces, the folks who man the Butterball Turkey Hotline, television hosts and anchors, people responsible for utilities, transportation providers (bus drivers, airline pilots and attendants, etc.)... And then there are the people who volunteer to do work on Thanksgiving: college football players and cheerleaders, people who feed the animals at the shelters, people who feed people at churches and soup kitchens, the folks manning the dozens of "turkey trot" races that happen on Thanksgiving day, etc. But retail workers "having" to clock in seems to be the only one that cheeses us off and makes us say "enough is enough!"

I think some people feel like this is akin to a human rights issue... that businesses "forcing" people not to hang with their families today is a kind of abuse. So, I'm guessing most of us have jobs here. How many of you have to do stuff for your job that is not your favorite? When I worked at Terra West, for a while we didn't have an office cleaner, so we rotated cleaning duties. I was a crack receptionist, dang it, but once a month, I had to clean the toilet that we, our customers, and random people off the street used impunity. It was disgusting. But I did it. So did the office manager. So did the licensed Realtor/property manager. If it had been so distasteful to me that I would not do it, I could have quit that job and done something else. "But these people can't quit," you might argue. "They're lucky to have a job at all, in this economy." Um. Right. So. When you work for a boss, you do what they tell you to do.

Personally, the times I've worked on holidays have been fine. When I worked at a grocery store, there was a festive atmosphere, everyone brought snacks, and the people who came in were lots of fun. I remember one lady asking the store manager to put on Muzak instead of the game, because the main reason she came to the store was to get away from football. Plus, I got time-and-a-half, so that was sweet. Then I just showed up at the family's house when I got off work, and everything was ready to go!

I was also on call when I was a property manager. I would get emergency maintenance calls, and, believe me, when you tell a tenant that her stove breaking down ON THANKSGIVING does not constitute an emergency as outlined in her lease, you're going to be on the phone a long time, and you're going to be called a lot of names you don't want your mom to know about or it would break her heart.

Still, neither of these enterprises lasted from sunup to sundown, and I never felt that my obligation to work "ruined" the holiday.

Finally, I think the point most people want to make is that this is all about consumerism and capitalism gone wild and the greed of corporations to make a buck. Well, maybe sort of. But businesses are in business to - ta da! - make money. So, yes, they're going to do it when they can. However, a friend of mine who owns his own business mentioned that he might be called in today to work and might not. He has an air conditioning and heating company. If your heater shut down today, and you had family over, and you were all horribly uncomfortable, he would come to you if you called him. He wouldn't do it for free, though. He is a business man and would charge you for a service call; and, likely, he'd charge you an increased fee because it *is* a holiday. Is he greedy because he will work on this day? Is he greedy because he's taking money and being all capitalistic? Or is he providing a service for which you would be grateful and therefore meeting the needs of his valued customers?

What if the people doing the shopping today aren't all the crazy idiots you're going to see on YouTube tomorrow? What if "Black Friday" (now, apparently, "Black Couple o' Days") is a tradition for them? What if hitting the stores to find the best bargains and make their money go as far as possible is a bonding experience for an aunt and her favorite niece? What if that man has wanted to get those earrings for his wife for three years but just hasn't had the money... until they went on a loss-leader sale that was only for the first three people in line? What if the getting out and the shopping for Christmas is done in genuine excitement for the joy the shopper is going to bring a far-flung friend?

What if going shopping as a family tradition, or even on ones own, because one needs a break from the potential stress of some family interactions, is not morally inferior to however it is some of us choose to spend our Thanksgiving? To going to a football game? To sitting on the couch with a beer or twelve watching a football game? To shooting one's wife to death in the card game Bang! because one needs three more cards and suspects his wife of being an outlaw, but really she's a renegade, and one not only gets no extra cards, but also gets shot to death himself during the next couple of turns, meaning that the outlaws win, and isn't that some sweet justice, sweetheart? To engaging in gluttony in the name of gratitude? Or maybe even to engaging in gluttony as the celebration itself, accidentally eschewing intentional expressions of gratitude? To going as a family to a theme park? To serving at a homeless shelter on a day when volunteers are a dime a dozen and those places need help in the middle of March, too?

I've seen that a lot of people are mad about this. If stores being opened on Thanksgiving ticks you off, then don't go to the store on Thanksgiving. If you feel that there is a morally superior way to express gratitude, then do that. I think we have freedom to let other people do other things and not decry the end of civilization as we know it.

Personally, I don't go to the Black Friday sales because I dislike crowds and waiting in line to check out. But I saw your pictures on Facebook. You moms with your daughters. You dads, reluctant, serving your daughters by taking them. You mall-walkers. And I don't think you're part of any problem.

If someone had to work yesterday and missed their family entirely, and it was the only chance all year they have to be with their family, then I do feel for them. I really do. I also feel for soldiers stationed overseas. For obstetricians whose deliveries took longer than they'd expected. For the guy who had to snake a sewer line because someone's kid flushed a ball down the same toilet that six or seven people used after, but before they realized that there was a problem. We can't all be present for everything we want to do. We miss weddings because we can't take the time off of work. We miss reunions. We miss Christmas because we want to travel and that's when we could get a cheap ticket, so the family celebrates Christmas on Boxing Day. And America and Christianity and gratitude and generosity survive, because, seriously guys, this is what we do.

Why are we so mad?

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and if you couldn't spend the actual day with your family, I hope you had another day to celebrate (like I did; my daughter's with her dad, so we did Thanksgiving last week). If you went shopping, then good on you, you crazy people. I had lunch with friends, might or might not be bitter about a card game, went on a walk with my sister, then was home in my fuzzy PJs meaning to have a nightcap but petering out too early.

We are going to a game store for their Black Friday sale today... but we're not in any hurry. And you know what? If someone wishes me "Happy Holidays," I'm going to smile back and thank them and wish them the exact same.

I promise you, no one is trying to take anything away from you guys. This is a free country. We are not being persecuted. To call anything that is happening a "war" on anything is an insult to people who are actually fighting wars. We all need to calm our collective booties down and spread some peace and love, okie doke?