Posted on 11/06/2003 8:36:24 AM PST by The Rant
Well, Halloween is over and the retailers in the United States have already started hawking the latest gizmos for Christmas. Ah, who am I kidding, they have been doing it since June but it seems to grate on me just a bit more now that we are preparing for Thanksgiving, the forgotten holiday. Suddenly, a holiday that encompasses everything that we should be doing, giving thanks for all of the good things we have in our lives and giving the narcissism that sometimes creeps into them a rest, stands overshadowed by the force-fed industrialism of our retail community. Never before have we so needed to embrace this time of reflection.
Every day we are inundated with what is wrong in the world. The media bombards us with political scandals, conflicts from around the world and a nauseating plethora of contemptuous political correctness along with those very vocal miscreants that support it. Common sense is so out of the picture that if envisioned it would look like a cowering puppy that has sought out the security of the space underneath the bed of the world in order to avoid its abuse. We all know the correct things to do regarding any given situation yet we have to cow-tow to the overly vocal special interest nags that total the most miniscule of minorities as they garner the largest of media coverage. At the end of the day we want to erupt in frustration because what should have been a simple and happy day has turned into a session of complaining, impractical demands and 24 hours of visionless twaddle.
We need Thanksgiving yet we charge from Halloween to Christmas. We need the break from our everyday lives and the opportunity to get together with friends and family without the expectation of anything but camaraderie. We need to spend time with those we seldom see throughout the year just as much as we need to realize our appreciation for those who we see every day.
So many times we see people missing those who have left us, be they loved ones and friends who have slipped the surly bonds of earth or people who have moved on from the realms of our lives. I know I have lost too many friends through the hand of God, friends that I wish I could talk to one more time just so I could tell them how important they were to me and that they helped me to enjoy and appreciate my life. I would like to be able to talk to my own Father once again just to tell him that I am bigger than any disagreements we may have had and that I love him for who he was and not what I expected of him. I wish I could tell my Grandmother just one more time that she is precious. To carelessly gloss over one of the most opportune times of the year, a time for reflection and thanksgiving, is to miss one of life’s few golden opportunities to re-invest in ourselves, our friends, our families and humanity.
As the drone of the talking heads rages on through the electric wonderland that is the television, as we read about all the bad that exists in the world courtesy of the editorializing rag merchants, how can we not be saturated with it all? How can we not need a moment, if but once a year, to stop, turn off the electronic chatter box, put down the pressed pulp that once was a tree and embrace those that we have taken for granted, albeit unwittingly, over the course of the year? How can we be too busy to pass up the opportunity to let those who are important to us understand how we feel? How can anything be more important than allowing ourselves the opportunity to share appreciation and love with those who are important to us?
The cash cow of Halloween has given way to the commercial onslaught of Christmas. And as many of us start making our shopping lists and getting Christmas cards out of the way I say you can count me out of all of those activities until after November 27th. While I love the warmth that Christmas has to offer I believe that the spirit of Thanksgiving is just as powerful if not more so. While the stores have their pre-Thanksgiving sales I will be thinking about those that are important to me, those who I can expect to see over the holidays and those who have moved on. I will be giving thanks for them, that they have even graced my life. Perhaps if everyone took the time to do this the world would be a bit less ruthless…if just for one day.
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Frank Salvato is a political media consultant, a freelance writer from the Midwest and the Managing Editor for TheRant.us. He is a contributing writer to The Washington Dispatch, OpinionEditorials.com, AmericanDaily.com and the Free Republic Network. He has appeared as a guest panelist on The O’Reilly Factor and his pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com, GOP-USA & The Iconoclast.com and occasionally featured in The Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and international publications.
Old Patriot
I agree in general with your statement, but keep in mind a lot of people don't have families to be with.
Thanksgiving is always a favorite time for me because by then, all the yard work is done, the gutters are cleaned out, the firewood is stacked, the Christmas lights are up and all the other outside stuff is done. Now it's time to sit by the fireplace, as winter settles in outside, and watch the Christmas lights blink while listening to Christmas carols and getting into some good books.
Bowls of nuts are all over the house, eggnog and heavy, dark beers fill the refrigerator. We have turkey in our house all during this time - not just on Thanksgiving Day. Though we do it up extra special on Thanksgiving. And the Christmas music - yes, we play it continously from around Thanksgiving right through Christmas for one extra long holiday.
It's a great time of year. My wife and I never get stressed out at the holidays and we are homebodies. We put plenty of food on the table and everybody is welcome to come and go as they please. We don't worry about rushing here to there. Our Christmas shopping is a few mouseclicks at Amazon. If we do go out, it's to a Barnes & Noble superstore or maybe a Sharper Image or Brookstones. Because those stores are fun for us as well.
I don't think Thanksgiving is a "forgotten" holiday. Maybe it's not as commercialized as Christmas but then, why should it be? For me, the Friday after Thanksgiving is an even better day. For as many rush to the shopping malls, we hang around and munch on cold turkey and sip our wine, while stoking up the fireplace and watching a couple of holiday movies on DVD or maybe get into a good conversation with any company that we have. Thanksgiving weekend is always a lot of fun and I feel like a kid on the first day of summer vacation because at that time, Christmas is still weeks away and I have all those days of the Christmas season yet to look forward to.
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