I'm not trying to be negative here, but this Black Friday stuff escapes me.

I don't get it.

If I really need something that Carla can’t find at Goodwill, even a present for someone else, I’ll go online to Amazon or Google, find the best price, and buy it. But to wait for a certain day when people lose their minds, running into unpleasantly crowded stores mostly to look for stuff you probably were already doing fine without anyway?

It’s like running into a burning building rather than out.

I don’t understand it.

Across the country, we just had the biggest Black Friday sales day ever. Is that a good thing? Certainly, it is for the stores. CEO’s suck on black market Cuban cigars and give each other high-fives from their padded leather chairs at the club. But what of us little folk? You know, the overwhelming majority of our population? Isn’t it just another red Herring? A 2019 version of the promise of a chicken in every pot? All the big players win if they keep us distracted. Fat and happy.

It’s like feeding starving people potato chips and cotton candy.

Empty calories.

Does anyone really need a bigger flat screen TV?

Politicians and CEO’s figure that if they can keep the little guys in a recliner with a Big Gulp and a 60” flat screen, we won’t make any trouble. We’ll think that we’re happy.

The distraction is little more than legal heroin.

It’s a tactic that supports the government shell game and the monster of consumerism.

God forbid that anyone search for deeper meaning.

Now, as Christmas approaches, mandatory gift giving ramps up big time. The tradition of giving gifts at Christmas was little more than a glowing pagan ember when Christians appropriated it to represent the gifts from the wise men. In the last 100 years, unbridled commercialism has used that coal to start a wildfire that most of us never pause to question. We’re more concerned with deciding who we put on our gift list. Who is worthy? Who is mandatory? Immediate family only? Friends? Co-workers?

Most people feel pressured. Like having geometry homework that must be done, knowing that it is doubtful that it will ever improve our lives to do it.

Who loves the mandatory “voluntary” gift giving in the workplace? Draw a name from a hat, buy that person you may have never actually spoken to, a gift.

Could we simply have a quick gathering instead, a few drinks, some tasty hors d'oeuvres, a sincere “How are you?” exchanged outside of the day to day…and then we all go home to our real families?

Hit and run perhaps, but real.

On the news we see the line of people camped out around Target at 3 am. When the doors finally open in the morning, people are neither pleasant, nor courteous. Generally, they’re full of something other than good cheer. They’re angry. Let’s wrestle over the last talking bear that commercials have made a must have item for the kid. Rather than fight with strangers, merry fucking Christmas and all that, maybe we shouldn’t be watching the commercial propaganda in the first place? Record the shows and skip the commercials? Read a book instead? Question the relevance of the whole thing and how it impacts my life?

Is it really worth It?

When asked to step away and render an opinion, most people agree that it feels forced. Empty and vacuous.

No wonder the suicide rate peaks around Christmas.

What if we just have a nice dinner together? No TV, no iPhones or tablets. Nothing that plugs into ears.

Now I’m going way out of the box here, I know, but what if we leave politics, religion and grudges at the door and simply enjoy dinner without all the usual distractions? Shut down the 24/7 white noise that screams at us from the monster of our voracious commercialism and the political spin machine. We may find that there is little else to do…other than to talk with each other. Live and in person.

That would be awesome.

I know it’s a stressful and chaotic time of the year. That could be why I’m thinking such crazy thoughts.

Maybe I should just settle down and grab a big gulp, hit the recliner, and watch something fun to take my mind off all of it.

Anything with the Kardashian stamp on it should do.