December-January holidays

Emotions too many to count and too risky to explore.

No longer filled with joy and happiness and beauty,

replaced with commercialism beginning in July or sooner.

Where did the names for super-discounted sales come from?

Black Friday, Black Monday, and so on. I’ve never understood that.

I’ve never wanted to be in a crowd of crazed shoppers

pushing at big box and mall doors when they opened,

disrespectful of everyone else because it was first come, first served.

Fighting like dogs over a bone, caring not if they trample someone or cause injury to a clerk or anyone.

Who should own this travesty? The shoppers, the employees?

Nope, this belongs to the corporate marketing geniuses,

who gleefully watch on their closed-circuit cameras

as people act like animals, with dollar signs spinning

in their eyes as they count the sales, never

noticing the pain in the eyes of those who couldn’t

get to the checkout before that special sale ran out.

It’s shameful, it’s truly not loving your neighbor

or doing unto others biblically. It’s doing to others

before they do it to you, and everyone is to blame.

Frankly, I’m glad we had holiday sales locked down this year.

I’m glad we went back to basics,

share more of ourselves, make do when we had to.

Should it always be locked down? NO, but we should always put

the real meaning of giving first, no matter what the holiday is.

Should we care more about each other’s well-being than what we get or give?

If, in my opinion, we learned to find true happiness, there would be less hate.

We can learn to hate evil and love one another.