How are you today?

BranchMonkey said:

Sensational said:

The hypocrisy you noted definitely isn't a shocker. I swear some people lose their minds over promotional deals over holidays. Seriously fricken crazy that police need to regulate a store because of the absurdity.

I consider myself agnostic or non denomination. Also I grew up Jehovah's Witness (I am not myself now however). But anyways because that's how I grew up we didn't celebrate Christmas with presents. I guess in that way I definitely relate to you viewing from the outside looking in. And you just shake your head in horror.

Even outside that though and good point about only serving one master. Outside that, I don't understand why people are bolting in many of these cases to get so much STUFF. Like un necessary stuff. I seen like five carts with life size stuffed animals. Wtf for? If anyone gets my kids such a hunk of junk which serves no purpose outside something to clutter a room and for our cat to piss on, I would be horrified. I mean to each their own. I just truly can't understand the fascination with 'STUFF'. I guess I prefer to give gifts to services that my kids would ask for money for anyways, like movies, shows, and other various activities or gift cards to places they like with friends etc. To each their own. But I really don't get it.

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I'm a Jew so you know, I'm supposed to be into money. :-D

Seriously, I never held money before me like a carrot just out of reach--not my thing although I love thrift store shopping and finding something special, even broken in for me, at a fair price--but I don't want to step on or over someone to get it.

And yes, the loads of stuff, last year, that day, someone had an entire cart filled with the exact same doll--I'm sure it was 'hot' by that day's standards, and her excitement was palpable. Maybe she got on eBay and "made a killing," who knows...

My husband and I don't have extra money.

But when we did, we had the attitude we still have:

Give someone something you put thought into, that you know they will enjoy--not what you want them to have, e.g. when I was 20ish and dirt poor, for Christmas my born again Christian biological mom bought me a makeup mirror even though she knew because I had told her, I had one pair of jeans and needed a spare. She knew I wasn't into that, spent 10 minutes on makeup back then--don't wear it at all now, so I gave the makeup mirror to a sister who loved it.

It's the thoughtlessness and the frenzied emotion, the distraction from what's missing--something deeper, I think:

That is what motivates so many to risk life and limb, literally, to get ahead of someone else and like a runner jumping the gun run for the shelf with the discounted items on it.

In this case I don't think 'to each his own' because the person doing the running is hurting in some way, gonna maybe hurt others too, and that's more like to each 'our' own, we are that connected, and we feed off whatever we see, have a share or stake in it.

Eh, I put my soapbox away a while ago, don't wanna get it out tonight, but I think you know what I mean:

We all get lost, off-track, and if we all keep quiet about it, it makes it easier to lose sight of what matters because as so many fine minds have put it, gist, "On our death bed we won't be adding up how many toys we have or how much money we made," which means, we won't be tallying how many Black Fridays we attended.

I sure hope to be one--if I am aware at the end--to know that on balance I grew closer to the center of myself, and when I got near I didn't see any change lying around; the change was intangible but apparent to those who knew me.

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