Pink Saturday
I really shouldn't be sitting here. Dad seems to be sleeping soundly so I should be doing stuff like laundry, putting away the good dishes and whatever else needs to be done. But I just don't feel like it.
I'm feeling a little depressed. We're barely past a day which was set aside for giving thanks and counting our blessings and Christmas is still a month away (I know that 30 days will travel at the speed of light, but still it's not tomorrow) yet there seems to be a collective frenzy going on to get things to put under a fake tree that smells more like pine sol than fresh evergreen.
I have to admit, the idea of getting up early and joining in the craziness appeals to me on a level I don't even understand. I don't get sleeping on the sidewalk for days just for a piece of electronic equipment. Yet every year, as we sit around the T-day dinner, feeling more stuffed than the bird that fed us, I kind of want to see what the madness is all about. As if I don't live with madness on a daily basis.
As I crawled into bed and put my tired-after-cooking-all-day feet under the covers, I asked Sweetie how we'd get along if we boycotted Walmart. I don't like the take-over-all-the-small-businesses-in-town concept of the Walmart virus that spread across the country at lightening speed. But I do like the low prices and the convenience of all-in-one shopping. My principles are often compromised when convenience is involved and a MacDonald's medium coke is available upon entering and exiting the store. I picked Walmart to boycott because I've already boycotted Best Buy and a new place called Sports Academy ??? (what? do you learn stuff as you walk through the mega store?). Mainly I was upset that Walmart stayed open till 11pm on Thanksgiving, let their employees go home and then ordered them back at 3 or 4or 5 in the morning. Why couldn't they embrace one day of gratitude by giving employees something to be thankful for? Grrrrr.
Even though I'm the first one to enjoy a good bargain, the whole concept of Black Friday just rankles me, In my book it has nothing to do with buying Christmas presents. It's all about some sordid need to compete, to be #1 in line, king of the flat screen TV hill. No matter that people and the whole spirit of the holidays get trampled as soon as the doors are unlocked. Grrrr!
Getting to my point. I have declared, in my own little corner of the world, today to be Pink Saturday. My choice of pink was based on nothing more than I like the color. And who can be grumpy when filled with pinkalicious merriment. (Okay, so I fussed at a certain man who didn't like the way I attempted to clean his nails, when I knew he could do it way better than I could so why did he even ask, I'm still feeling pink - sort of). I don't know if the idea will catch on, but I'd love to walk out and see people dressed in pink waving and shouting holiday greetings across crowded parking lots while over-worked retail workers and customers smile at each other as the cash register ca-chings in jingle bell fashion. I wonder, could a little pink put the Ho!Ho!Ho! back in the "Holy Crap! Look at that line in front of Santa! Stop whining! Don't mess up your pretty dress! If you don't behave yourself I'm going to tell Santa to give your presents to the poor people! Don't touch that! " I don't know, but it's worth a try. And maybe it will help me show a little more compassion to the man who counts on my cheery countenance to make it through the day.
Wishing for you a little something pink in your world ... peppermint flavored candy, fresh roses, Barely There nail polish ...
Merry ME
Comments
It worries me these cheap stores, I know people are living in straightened times and that the likes of Walmart are serving that need. But I worry about the exploitation of the people who make the cheap clothes, put the electronics together, farm the fields for so little money that it makes walmart customers look like millionaires.