Practicing Thanks on Black Friday

Thanksgiving represents a time in our nation's history when the first European settlers feared they would not have enough food to survive through the winter. The Native Americans taught the new settlers how to grow and reap local foods and to protect themselves against the impending cold. As a result, they were able to survive, and feasted with the Native Americans as a symbol of brotherhood. On Thanksgiving Day, we remember to be grateful for the abundance that we have, and look for abundance in places where it seems we have none.

Thanksgiving Day is right around the corner, and with it comes the infamous Black Friday. One of the busiest shopping days of the year in the US, Black Friday arrives with deep discounts at many major retail stores to kick off the holiday shopping season.

We live in a country where we have so much food we throw 40 million tons of it away each year. Much of our culture now revolves around things that are single-use or disposable. We buy and throw away and buy again. We have more abundance than could have been fathomed on the first Thanksgiving.

The past few years have been economically challenging for many Americans, and to many of us the ability to buy presents for our friends and family is loaded with the symbolic weight of our ability to provide. But studies show that the satisfaction of obtaining material possessions is dwarfed by spending quality time with family and friends. Abstaining from overindulgence or even just not purchasing things regularly helps you to appreciate those things more when you do need to buy it. Many shoppers find that the experience of shopping and finding the deal is far more thrilling than having the things that they bought. That high disappears once they get home with all their stuff, sometimes with hundreds of dollars of added debt.

Rather than dropping your hard earned money on deals that you may not need, let your appreciation for abundance from Thanksgiving Day carry over into Black Friday and into the Holiday Season. Talk to your family about celebrating the holidays by doing something fulfilling together. Go on a camping trip, teach someone a family recipe, donate to a charity they feel strongly about, make a playlist of your favorite songs for someone, volunteer together. Thanksgiving is about sharing the wealth, and even with our recession, we have more than enough wealth to give. Like the name implies, it's not just about Thanks, it's about being Giving too! Remember to share the love. And until next time, keep it clean!