Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy,buy, buy, buy, buy
Hmmmm, I suspect the Christmas countdown blog isn't supposed to be about rants.
But I just can't help it. As usual, we carefully avoided stores and shopping areas today (in fact, we took Susan's mom Betty with us to the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park to see the exhibit of the Gees Bend quilts). Nevertheless, I was struck in the past twentyfour hours by a number of things: the papers yesterday morning were fuller than they are on Sunday with all the sales flyers; some stores actually opened on Thanksgiving day for people to get a jumpstart on the shopping; the HGTV channel has a solid lineup tonight of my least favorite show ("I want that"); we could hardly get the door open tonight because there were so many catalogs pushed through the mailslot in the door. There's just something about all this frenzy and waste that just sticks in my throat.
We were feeling so full of gratitude for our families, for the wonderful food, the beautiful day, how much we love the Bay area. And for right livelhood, our dear friends, the beauty of the natural world, the joy of creativity.
So the waste and the uselessness of so much of the excess just seems so wrong to me today. It's not that I don't like to buy things--I've been really enjoying the clothes I got for my new job, and I am loving my new car. But there just seems like so much money spent on stupid stuff people don't need and so much energy spent on this frenzy instead of on the peace, the love, the gratefulness, and the moments of stillness and silence that the season seems about to me. I mean, couldn't we have Thanksgiving for acouple days before we move on to buy, buy, buy?
OK, enough ranting. I'm enjoying everyone's blogs and looking forward to sharing our holidays as they unfold.
Much love, Sandra
But I just can't help it. As usual, we carefully avoided stores and shopping areas today (in fact, we took Susan's mom Betty with us to the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park to see the exhibit of the Gees Bend quilts). Nevertheless, I was struck in the past twentyfour hours by a number of things: the papers yesterday morning were fuller than they are on Sunday with all the sales flyers; some stores actually opened on Thanksgiving day for people to get a jumpstart on the shopping; the HGTV channel has a solid lineup tonight of my least favorite show ("I want that"); we could hardly get the door open tonight because there were so many catalogs pushed through the mailslot in the door. There's just something about all this frenzy and waste that just sticks in my throat.
We were feeling so full of gratitude for our families, for the wonderful food, the beautiful day, how much we love the Bay area. And for right livelhood, our dear friends, the beauty of the natural world, the joy of creativity.
So the waste and the uselessness of so much of the excess just seems so wrong to me today. It's not that I don't like to buy things--I've been really enjoying the clothes I got for my new job, and I am loving my new car. But there just seems like so much money spent on stupid stuff people don't need and so much energy spent on this frenzy instead of on the peace, the love, the gratefulness, and the moments of stillness and silence that the season seems about to me. I mean, couldn't we have Thanksgiving for acouple days before we move on to buy, buy, buy?
OK, enough ranting. I'm enjoying everyone's blogs and looking forward to sharing our holidays as they unfold.
Much love, Sandra
posted by jed-laura | 8:35 PM
3 Comments:
I definitely agree. Yesterday got me down, because I've never been a very good gift-giver, and I wish there was some other way to tell the people that I am getting gifts for that I love them that they would really understand the way I feel.
We went to the city Christmas kick-off & they showed Christmas cartoons in the old-theater. It was so fun to see Charlie Brown's Christmas - where we are reminded the reason for the season is not all of the commercial-hype.
We found that yesterday's shopping experience made us happy that we did not have tons of extra money. It would be sad to have commercialism take over the season. Not being able to afford extravagant gifts makes it easier to stay focused on what really matters at Christmas. -Family, and Love.
-Jed
I think that this step we are taking this year, of giving gifts of our time to each other, even though its long distance, is the perfect beginning to getting to that point in our lives where we realize that money doesn't mean that we love each other. I think we've kind of conquered that one. I just think that we are doing really well in that area, and staying grounded in the creative ways of sharing the holiday across the distance and on a budget, without spending money. Love Charlotte
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