11/22/12
My television broke today. I got it three years ago and of course it would have to stop working on Thanksgiving and two years past its warranty. I always enjoy watching the Macy Parade and the dog show that’s on after the parade. These are traditional American Turkey Day pass times including watching football and stuffing our turkeys and stuffing our stomachs. Maybe not having a television on Thanksgiving is a blessing. It makes me inconvienienced and ticked off, but appreciative of everyone who doesn’t have a television, or who isn’t celebrating Thanksgiving with their families. It can be a sad day depending where you are. If you are like millions of unfortunate Americans today you may be having your Thanksgiving dinner at a soup kitchen.
It would be too cynical and cold to not think about all who are suffering today. 50 million Americans are dependent on Food Stamps and yet all the media can focus on this week is shopping on Black Friday. For my international audience who may have wondered what this American term means, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving when all the retail outlets in the country offer their best sales and Americans go shopping crazy. It’s a buyers’ bacchanal. Oddly enough I guess it’s the best day of the year to have a broken television, when television sales are at their best prices of the year.
I wondered today if anyone outside of the U.S could understand what a crazy time of year it is in America. It is a national holiday that honors and eats a turkey. It is also a holiday when Americans’ obsession to buy drives them into a national frenzy. Americans’ patience is at its all time low and Americans’ credit card debt increases 10 fold. It is a prime example of societal insanity from now until shortly after New Years Day. Christmas is another insane American holiday that was meant to celebrate the birth of Christ, but has become the great American celebration of consumer madness. Any thought of Christ or religion during Christmas in America is secondary next to the thought of what to buy Dad and Mom and the kids for Christmas, and booking a plane flight for the Holiday.
The great Holiday tradition in America is to spend the Thanksgiving and Christmas week or weekend with relatives. It’s a fond tradition however, it often leads to over indulgence in spending, eating, drinking, anger and interfamily rivalries. So often many Americans will leave their homes and drive for hours or days on over crowded highways, and have to wait in airports for delayed or overbooked flights. But they all seem to do it unbegrudingly for the one time of the year, they can have so much fun. Societal insanity isn’t a strong enough description for what Americans go through this time of year.
To my American readers I wish you all good luck and a Happy Thanksgiving, and to all my international readers, I wish you peace and sanity.
L.A. Steel
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