This year, maybe more than any other year, I have heard a
lot of negativity and complaining about Black Friday. Lots of comments of materialism and
idolatry. Memes about there only being “one
Black Friday with eternal savings.”
Facebook statuses about how crazy people are to fight over things and
how evil stores are for opening on Thanksgiving night.
And while I might agree that it stinks that stores open on
Thanksgiving (no, I didn’t shop on Thursday) and there is a certain level of
excess greed and overt materialism on Black Friday, I remain unconvinced that
lashing out against “the machine” is the best use of our time and our
words. Let me tell you about Black
Friday from my perspective.
As soon as I was able to drive, my sister and I made our
first trek out into the madness. After
our Thanksgiving feast, we scoured the ads with markers and notebooks, planned
out our route and strategy and set our alarms for some crazy hour of the
morning. Waking up in the dark, heading
out on our own gave a certain sense of excitement and independence that we had
not experienced until that time. We got
to the mall before stores opened and were treated to hot chocolate and donuts
as we waited. We never witnessed a
fight, a screaming match, foul language, and greedy, pushing people. On the contrary, we experienced laughter,
cooperation, excitement, and holiday joy.
When doors opened, yes, we all rushed in, laughing and scrambling to our
desired sale. I saw men standing at
displays and handing vacuum after vacuum to waiting old women and tired
moms. I saw women graciously helping one
another find the right color scarf or the jeans that are the right size.
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| My sister and I on our last Black Friday foray - 2011 |
After shopping until we just about dropped, my sister and I
always went to McDonalds and split a #2 (two cheeseburgers, large fry, and
soda) before heading to the mall for a Christmas matinee and purchase of
wrapping materials. Heading home in the
dark, gawking at the newly-lit Christmas lights and listening to new Christmas
cds, we spent the evening wrapping presents, eating Thanksgiving leftovers and
laughing… a lot. Black Friday for us was
NOT about the stuff. It was about each
other. The memories, the time, the joy
of being together.
This year, I didn’t rush out the door in the wee hours of
the morning (it was 7 am) and I didn’t go with my sister (I went with my
mother-in-law and sister-in-law) and I didn’t eat McDonald’s cheeseburger (it
was a McMuffin) and I didn’t come back and wrap presents (I put them in a black
trash bag and hid them in the back of my van).
BUT, I tell you what else I didn’t see – I didn’t see angry, greedy mobs
and I didn’t see pushing, shoving people and I didn’t see nasty, cruel
materialists.
I DID see a lot of laughter and friendliness and friends
hanging out together and families spending time together and excitement and
anticipation and just plain old happy times.
For myself, I had fun finding bargains with my family and sharing
delicious coffee and smiling at strangers humming Christmas carols and
whistling holiday tunes.
Perspective is important.
I’m not saying that all those bad things people complained about all
over facebook didn’t happen. I’m sure
they did somewhere and I’m sure that is the story that will end up on the
evening news and all over facebook top trending hashtags. But I’m willing to bet that there were a
great deal more happy times that aren’t newsworthy that happened across America
today. Things that were a lot more
grounded in friendship, love, and togetherness than in materialism and greed.
And here’s the thing.
Maybe on Black Friday it’s more pronounced but the reality is all year
long we live in a materialistic society.
Every single day of the year, we have more STUFF than we could ever
need. And that’s just how it is right
now. To judge by just one day is a basically
flawed logic. It would be more realistic
to address the situation as a whole. So
do we just never shop? Never give gifts? Never allow for moments of buying, spending,
and giving? For most of us the answer
is, of course, we will do those things.
But what is our heart in them?
I didn’t go out today with a heart to get as much STUFF as
possible to fill some kind of void in my life.
I had a list and a budget. I went
to get some Christmas gifts that would bless my husband and bless my kids (and
bless my wallet at the same time). I
went to spend some time with my family, to share in the excitement of the
holiday season, and to just have a good time.
And I did. And so did a lot of
others. And that’s not newsworthy or
sensational but that is Black Friday to me.
A heart of greed. A
heart of judgment. That’s what makes any
Friday black. Regardless of whether you
buy anything that day or not.
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