Nov. 17, 2014
Scribe Staff
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With the first snow of the season and the calendar flying toward the end of November, it is officially the holiday season.
That phrase, holiday season, has all sorts of connotations for people.
Positively, it can mean the greeting of relatives unseen for a year or more, the camaraderie of family and a unique coming together of people that isn’t present at other times throughout the year.
Negatively, it can mean the rush of gift acquiring and the madness of Black Friday, it can mean the unlikely event of trying to get along with your in-laws after all these years and it can mean long road trips to visit relatives you don’t even know.
But even with all of the pressure and stress that comes with this time of year, it is necessary, in fact imperative, for us to remember what this season is about.The joyous, simple phrase that explains why we go through what we go through during the holidays.
This phrase explains the whole season, but especially Thanksgiving.
Be thankful.
That’s it, that’s all. It’s that easy. Be thankful for what you have been able to see and accomplish this year. Be thankful for the opportunities that you have had throughout your life and will continue to have moving forward. Most importantly, be thankful for the people that are in your life.
The things, the newest technology, will still be there long after your friends and family have left. Your friends and family are not always there, so take advantage of the time you do have with them.
You will be able to interact with that new TV every day, it is often not so with family and friends that are around for the holidays.
They didn’t travel hundreds of miles to see your new iPhone, they came to see you. And you don’t go hundreds of miles to see their new computer or tablet, you traveled all that way to see and interact with them.
All the distractions of the holidays can serve as just that: distractions from the underlying point that it can be so easy to forget.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have changed the meaning of Thanksgiving. A day after (or even on the same day) we profess our thanks for the things we are able to see and do, we fi ght (sometimes literally) to get the best deal on a 700 inch TV.
We have replaced the camaraderie of family and friends with the acquiring of physical goods. We have gone from Uncle Ted to Uncle Flat Screen.
Perhaps it’s time to ask, especially around this time of year: what is really important to you?