Counting Blessings

Black Friday. Such a descriptive term. It has charged its way into our vocabulary like a worldwide holiday itself. Once the lowly day-after-Thanksgiving, this retail extravaganza hasn't just settled for one day. This make or break shopping frenzy has started to gobble up not only turkey day evening but days and weeks ahead and after Friday. Don't get me wrong. I've earned stripes for "one who works to get a bargain." And I know there are those families that look at Thanksgiving weekend as the ultimate hunting season - some with a gun, some with a remote control, and some with a credit card. It just makes me a bit sad that we blow through the holiday that we set aside to count our blessings in order to bless ourselves with more.

It's interesting to travel in other countries around holidays to observe what is deemed important and what is not. I count it a blessing to travel. I gave up buying t-shirts and knick-knacks from every place I visited years ago. But I do have a Christmas tree dedicated to ornaments from my trips. I love my little travel tree and every December I get a kick out of reliving the random memories as I pull the trinkets from their tissue to adorn the evergreen. I have hunted Christmas ornaments in other countries at various times of the year only to be told "No, we just have things like that at Christmas time."

In America, Christmas decorations show up as soon as back to school supplies thin out. Plus there is Christmas stores open year round. Plus every year there is new decor, new themes, tons of latest and greatest things to make THIS Christmas special. We did a German Christmas market a couple of years ago. While we loved the food and festivities, we were surprised that the shopping selection was pretty small. It was almost like once you had these items then you were ready. Maybe the Germans aren't as commercial as Americans, or perhaps they just aren't as retail savvy but in some small way it took the emphasis off new spending and put it on old traditions.

The biggest holiday culture shock I ever experienced was the first time I traveled to Kenya. Son, Caleb, and I were gone during the time that our little town makes its transformation to Christmas. We spent a couple of weeks in one of the most natural places on Earth, and fell in love with the people, the animals and the simplicity of this world in which they live. The Lion King came to life for us as we learned about what it takes to survive in Africa. Mommas love their babies, dads try to provide for the family and I mean both the two-legged and four-legged kind. Sitting on a goat hide in a hut made of cow dung in the Masai Mara sharing stories with a nomadic clan will change a person. I've said over and over, one never completely comes back from Kenya. You will leave a piece of your heart.

When we returned to Grove somehow wanting to hang onto the special feeling of the safari like one does as a good book or movie comes to an end. The plastic decorations and stampede of shoppers pushing carts and barking at children became disheartening. Something in Christmas felt terribly artificial and forced. The way we had given up the beauty of the season for stress and tension made me wonder who was truly civilized. I would have traded the whole tinsel topped mess for another Serengeti sunset.

I suppose it's all about balance, moderation. I don't want to be Debbie-Downer for the Black Friday shoppers, I just hope the thankfulness of the Thursday before doesn't get lost in the frenzy of the Friday. Happy hunting.