'Tis The Season

I have been enjoying the last few days with my family and my friends, eating too much, not sleeping enough, and being grateful for the wonderful things in my life, much as I am the rest of the time. I am healthy, loved, blessed with a career that fulfills me, and live in a beautiful place.

However, some people seem to express their thanks in an entirely different way. "Black Friday", which is a very ugly name, elicits some very bad behavior across our land.

If you are not familiar with this phrase, it is the day after Thanksgiving when, for some reason, people wake up at an ungodly hour to stand in long lines waiting for shops to open so they can push and yell at eachother in order to save a few dollars on merchandise for their loved ones. I have never done this, thus don't understand the logic behind it, but many Americans consider this to be the beginning of the season honoring their savior.

That said, on Black Friday, in Long Island, New York, approximately 2,000 people were massed together waiting for the opening of a Wal-Mart store. They pushed and pushed until the front door broke open and knocked a security guard to the floor. He was lying under the feet of these people crying for someone to help him, but nobody helped. Instead they pushed eachother into the store to buy cheap products for low prices. The guard died there on the floor, and the crush of people probably didn't even get the last cheap thing in the aisle.

The same day, in Palm Desert, California, at approximately 11:30 in the morning, many people were shopping in the Toys'R'Us store. The lines were long with lots of people waiting to pay for their goods, and two women, who apparently knew eachother, got into a shouting match. This turned physical and one of their husbands lifted his shirt to expose the handle of the gun he had in his waistband.

The other husband pulled out his pistol and started firing. A running gun battle ensued, throughout the store, and both men were shot multiple times. Each of them perished there on the floor of the Toys'R'Us, in front of their wives and many other families and their children.

Life is a precious commodity and should be lived to the fullest with joy and gratitude.

Some of us seem to have forgotten the true spirit of this season. It is not about getting the best deal on the last thing before anyone else does, or who gets in line first, but understanding the amazing gift we have been given and living each day in the best way we can, and loving and respecting one another.

When you are angry or impatient, please try to remember that this is only one minute in a very long life and, by itself, it really is not that important. Those small minutes of anger and impatience have changed many people's lives forever.