The Blackest Friday

I'm so glad I put only minimal effort into the holidays and don't let stress take over. This year I'm doing holiday cards to business associates. Everyone else will get an e-card and that's that.

For Thanksgiving we met our son's best friend and his Dad at a restaurant.

We celebrate Chanukah. It means lighting candles every night for 8 nights. There's a tradition of gifting, but very small gifts each of the 8 days. I've consolidated that and the only person to get that gift is our son.He's getting a gift membership to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which we can sign up for online or we can go in person to one of the zoos and sign up then and there (and go to the zoo free as members that same day). He even gets a free tee shirt.

Even if I were into more gifts, I hope I would never fall into the crass and revolting materialism that resulted in a worker's death at a WalMart yesterday. For people who don't know, the shoppers outside were so eager to snap up the bargains on Black Friday morning that they stormed into the store at 6 AM, tore the doors off the hinges,and trampled a young man working at the store to death.We have a sick society when buying presents at a low, low price, just so the commercialistic holiday greed can go on even in a bad economy, is more important than a human life. I wonder how the revolting jerks who trampled this poor guy can go home and feel content that they bought their cheap presents. (Actually, the store was closed, so I hope nobody got to buy a damn thing, but the cattle were still streaming into the place, lowing for bargains, as EMT workers were trying to revive the murdered man).

This is the end result of "holiday stress," the pressure to buy presents for everyone under the sun, and the greedy gimmes that society has encouraged people to associate with a holiday season that ought to be about something more spiritual and more caring. That applies whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanuka, Kwanzaa, Diwali, or just the Winter Solstice.

So here's MY suggestion for doing away with holiday stress: Stop giving gifts to people in your family, friends, etc. If you have enough disposable income in these times, make a gift to charity. Right now the food pantries are suffering and more people than ever are on the bread lines. If you've got the money to buy gewgaws then you have the money to make charitable gifts in your loved ones' honor. You can do all that online, no waiting in huge crowds at the mall. Best of all, you'll be sharing the holiday spirit with someone who really needs it, and no store workers or other people will have to be sacrificed. (A pregnant woman was taken to the hospital also, but she turned out to be okay).

About that fancy dinner? Go to a soup kitchen and serve holiday dinner to the homeless or the newly poor. Then get with your family and friends for a potluck some other time when there isn't the commercial pressure to compete with Martha Stewart. Lighten your load, help someone in need, and you can forget holiday stress. You'll be helping others and helping yourself: volunteering is good for your health. This holiday, let's change our ways.