Excuse Me if I DON’T Offend

THE TRUE MEANING OF THE SEASON

by OPOVV, ©2014

(Nov. 28, 2014) — I have to come clean: if I don’t elicit a reaction from my editorials, I have to admit I’m disappointed. I like a good deal as much as the next guy, but I have my limitations, and my first limitation is NOT patronizing a store, any store, that’s opened on Thanksgiving Day.

But what is a Thanksgiving day? Well, in my book, Thanksgiving starts at 6:00 pm Wednesday and ends sometime after 9:00 Friday morning.

Missed deals? Okay, show me what you paid for an item on Nov. 28^th  and let’s compare what I paid for the very same exact item on Feb 1^st, 2015.

Same goes for Christmas cards and decorations. Buy them the day after Christmas.

Okay, here’s the deal: Christmas isn’t about money and giving and getting. Christmas is about remembering to try and live a better life, to make a better effort in treating kindly the other creatures that we share the planet with, including, but not limited to, total strangers.

If someone goes out on Thanksgiving Day to score a great deal, that means that there’s someone else involved in the transaction. There’s an old saying about the world, “Nothing happens until a deal is struck,” and it takes two to tangle.

And so…if nobody went out on Thanksgiving Day, then at some time, the stores would all be closed and the employees with loved ones instead of being where they really don’t want to be. There was a time that the first Christmas decorations weren’t seen until Thanksgiving Day, and not a minute before, and the only store in town open was the newsstand near the railroad depot.

Good manners, just as good intentions, start at home. Driving crazy to “get there on time” is not conducive to sound planning and judgment. Perhaps the major cause of plane crashes is what’s known as “On-time-itis.”

So, do what? Slow down and smell the flowers along the way? Treat others as you, too, would wish to be treated? That’s a start. And that’s what Christmas is all about, isn’t it?

Semper Fi

OPOVV