Our day of national gluttony is almost here. We fill
ourselves with turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes,
green bean casserole and pumpkin pie, and we sit down to watch football, the
sport that offers brain damage from concussions. What a day. It’s one of a few
days in the year when families gather to gorge and love one another.
Something has replaced the local enactments of our
national mythology. It’s shopping. The thing I have been hearing about is Black
Friday. Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, and now it is
becoming Black Thursday. A bit of an uproar has surfaced about stores being
open all or part of Thanksgiving Day, due to people being required to be at
work in those stores when God and country have previously expected them to be
at the table and in front of the television set. What has happened to our
priorities? Our families?
As long as Black Friday has moved to center stage,
Thanksgiving Thursday seems to be taking second or third place. Second place
behind our economic system. Third place behind the pilgrims of two hundred
years ago and their big dinner with the native people that became part of our
national mythology. It’s shopping that matters. Let’s get a head start on
Christmas, which is only a month away.
I’m glad to know that some churches in Madison will be
serving Thanksgiving dinner for those who would like to partake. Those dinners
will be lovingly presented by people who won’t be in their homes and won’t be
at the mall. Hats off to them. We still have plenty of goodness in the USA.
What can we say about an economic system that is powerful
enough to overtake a national holiday? Are human beings primarily economic
animals who serve the capitalist system? Some of the store workers may need the
money more than they need a turkey dinner. And the turkeys themselves are part
of the financial expense of Thanksgiving. Some people can’t afford big turkeys.
Low income people are in a bind every day, not just Thanksgiving Day. It’s a
system that needs to go to rehab.
We rejoice with our families as we fill ourselves with
turkey, watch football and go shopping. Let’s give a thought to American
wonderfulness. Families still matter. Being together and sharing food matter in
spite of the things that interfere. Let’s put Black Thursday in the back seat,
away from our table.
