Black Friday..The Beginning of The Christmas Season

Black Friday, millions of shoppers out looking for bargain prices on home goods, Christmas gifts and whatever else catches their eye...the official race is on toward that special day, December 25th when kids open presents with glee, and mother's spend another day slaving away in the kitchen preparing a meal that will be devoured in less than an hour.  Shopping, it is the reason for the season...no wait, that's not right is it?  Santa Claus, eggnog, office parties, and a season of imbibing and eating far too many treats and sweets as our waist lines bulge...that's the reason for the season!

Let's all make our meaningless toast about wanting "Peace on Earth" and "Goodwill towards Men" (and what about women), maybe toss a small handful of change into the little red buckets for those less fortunate than ourselves, pat ourselves on the back for being noble heart'ed concerned citizens. Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, LA.  Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells and let's not forget, we are all dreaming of a WHITE CHRISTMAS...as in maybe a new White BMW in the driveway with a big red bow! 

Just here in America, our citizens will rush to the stores, malls and shopping centers, credit cards in flames as they spend over $600 BILLION DOLLARS on a one day celebration, most of them going further into debt in an attempt to hold up their end of the deal with Corporate America who is counting on them to change bottom lines from Red to Black.  HO, HO, HO...we want to wish each and every one of you a Merry Debtmas...I mean Christmas.   

Imagine a Christmas season where we came from a different mindset, a mindset where mass consumption of material goods was not front and center.  With what we spend on celebrating Christmas, collectively we have the ability to purchase 3 million $200,000 homes for those Americans who see home ownership as an impossible dream.  How many of this nation's environmental problems could be better addressed if we collectively could put $600 Billion dollars toward remediation efforts?  How many Food Banks could be supplied for an entire year with some 600 Billion dollars in groceries?  Imagine this mindset  being employed world wide for just one year, with every nation on Earth setting aside personal consumption in the name of making the world a more beautiful place in which to live.

Just a thought...