I just returned to my apartment after working half a day during which time my phone didn’t ring once. Either nobody else was working today or they just assumed that I wasn’t. Either way the only ringing that I experienced was the ringing in my ears from hearing the office’s resident Cowboys fan complaining about their performance yesterday. I missed out on spending Thanksgiving with my family in Boston for this? Just because the markets were open?
Which begs the question: why were the markets open!!!! Are we really in that much of a rush to have people overreact to the first report that says that Black Friday sales are worse than last year? Can’t we wait until Monday to devalue my 401k or do we have to do that first before we can enjoy the weekend?
If you ask me this entire holiday is out of whack. As Black Friday becomes Black Wednesday and Cyber Monday turns into Cyber Friday it’s becoming increasingly obvious to me that we’ve lost sight of what’s really important. Thanksgiving isn’t about kicking off the Holiday shopping season. It’s not about cramming as many NFL games into the schedule as is humanly possible. And it’s damn sure not about business as usual. What it’s about, what it has always been about and always should be about, is spending time with friends and family, and gee, I don’t know, maybe actually giving thanks for the things in your life that you are grateful to have.
How can we get back on track? It’s obvious: let’s combine Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. This way we can justify giving everyone the day after Thanksgiving off, since it’ll technically be a separate holiday, and we can properly ensure that the Veterans get their just due over not just one day but an entire four day weekend. The two holidays are already just two weeks apart on the calendar so logistically it makes sense. And most importantly it makes sense logically. After all, if Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks aren’t we most thankful for all the sacrifices made on our behalf by our service men and women past and present?
I’ve long said that we need to rethink our holidays. Turning birthdays into labor day celebrations for instance or creating a sibling day. Combining Veterans Day and Thanksgiving to ensure that everyone gets the day after Thanksgiving off and that proper recognition is given to the veterans would be a great start. Now if you’ll excuse me I have some shopping to do before I lose the rest of my savings on Monday.
Leave a comment