Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Soapbox in 3,2,1...

Does anyone else think it's funny at how "outraged" people on the Internet are? About everything? It seems like a full time job for some people.  The latest outrage I have been reading about concerns Black Friday.  Supposedly now everyone is outraged about how stores are opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving Day and therefore forcing us all to eat less turkey, be 40% less thankful and become gold digging jerks.  Last time I checked I was not aware we were being forced to go shopping on Thanksgiving night. Obama has not signed that executive order yet. He probably will, and we'll all be forced to buy electric cars and bamboo laptops, but at this point we still can choose how to spend our evening.

Back when we were DJs in Salt Lake City, our boss always held a big country dance on Thanksgiving night.  You might think, that's crazy!  It's a holiday and no one will come because surely they are spending time with their families and making lists of all the things they are thankful for and hugging each other. Well, no actually. By about 8pm all those kids were sick and tired of their families and wanted something TO DO.  It was one of the biggest dances of the year and it always made bank.  Those young adults had spent all day with their families.  It was time to get out of the house and spend a little of their vacation doing something they enjoyed.  I liken Black Friday to the dance music at the end of a wedding reception.  Most of a reception consists of music that is light and romantic. But come on, after dinner and cutting the cake, people are ready to party. They don't want to sit and listen to Celine Dion for four hours- no matter how in love the bride and groom are.  But just because people rock out to Cha Cha slide or do the Wobble doesn't suddenly negate the wedding or mean that romance is dead. It just caps off a (hopefully) wonderful day.

So I really don't understand why Black Friday and Thanksgiving can't coexist.  There are plenty of people out there that spend all day with their families and then spend ALL NIGHT with them shopping.  What more do you want?  I mean, is there some sort of test we have to pass to prove we were thankful enough on Thanksgiving Day in order to do anything else?  We just need to accept that we cannot make other people spend holidays in the way we think is appropriate.  As a traditionalist, I would hope everyone would be with their families on Thanksgiving Day, eating a 6-year-old turkey they found in the back of their freezer with mounds of cranberry sauce that expired two years ago.  But some people hate turkey. Some people are allergic to turkey. Some people can't spell turkey. (Cough!*Obama*Cough!)  Some people don't own a calendar and don't even know it's Thanksgiving.  Nor do they care. And guess what? Life goes on. Remember, it is just a day.  We picked it out of a hat and labeled it.  That's all. We made it that way.  You can be really, really thankful on 364 other days too.  It is not exclusive to that one day.  So if you want a 75 inch TV for $99.50 and are willing to skip turkey dinner so you can be in a tent in order to get one on Thanksgiving night, go right ahead. Heck, if you want to go on a cruise without any of your family and be floating in the middle of the Atlantic ocean eating shrimp cocktail on Thanksgiving, more power to you.  It is wonderful that Thanksgiving is a National holiday.  Personally, I kind of like it more than Christmas. But to each his own. And if you disagree, consider me outraged!

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