Holidays in the abstract

  Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I have so much to be thankful for. It is 10:00 pm Mandy is asleep on the couch. Michaela is watching her favorite show. Every 10 minutes or so the show breaks for commercials announcing Black Friday deals. They use to open the stores at 5:00 a.m. on Friday. This year they are opening the doors at J.C. Penney at 1:00 p.m. Thanksgiving day. Macy's follows at 5:00 p.m. Really!!! We are suppose to be celebrating a day of thankfulness with our families and corporate America  is asking us to sell our time with our families to save a few fucking dollars. I am filled with disgust. 

   I am terminal but I am lucky. I know what is important in life. When will enough be enough. When will we stop buying into these lies. Is a few hundred dollars really so important that we sacrifice precious time with the ones we love. 

  Mandy and I have participated in Black Friday 2 times in the last 12 years. The first time was prior to our first anniversary. After staying awake until 1 in the morning we woke up at 4 to make it to the mall before 5:00. It was a miserable day. The second time was a few years ago when Black Friday began at midnight. It was another miserable night and the following day wasn't much better.

   Tomorrow we will sleep in. We will have breakfast as a family. We will prepare dinner together. We will share a feast together. We will enjoy our time together. We will put up Christmas lights over the weekend and prepare for our annual Christmas vacation. We will be together and we will not be fighting crowds at the mall. I feel sorry for those who still see themselves as immortal. They are missing so much.