An Assessment...

... Of Black Friday...

So, I am kind of tired of hearing people talk about how evil it is to go shopping on Black Friday. I mean... really... shame on all of us who hit the stores yesterday at 3am. Clearly, all we were thinking about was our need for more and more stuff and how the best way to pursue the American Dream is by diving in... head first... to consumerism and greed! Yeah... that's definitely what I was concerned about when the alarm went off after my luxurious THREE hours of sleep!

Ya know what I was really thinking about? A couple of things...

First, I was excited to have a whole day to spend with my family. It doesn't happen nearly as often as we might like. When my 8 year old daughter greeted me... fully awake... when I came to her door at 2am, I knew she was excited, too. When my 9 year old son (who usually takes hours to get dressed in the morning) followed us down the stairs, fully clothed and ready to go, it hit me that he was looking forward to the day. And when my sleepy 5 year old son finally opened his eyes and processed what was going on, he shouted, "Yeah! it's Black Friday". They were all, of course, thinking about the hundreds upon hundreds of dollars that they had in their little pockets to spend on themselves, right?

Also... I love giving gifts. I am well aware of the true meaning of Christmas. I'm not in it to get everything I can out of it. But come on... let's not be so pious that we forget that Christmas is about God's gift to us and that we can celebrate that gift by sharing with others. We can celebrate it in a whole lot of other ways too... and our family does... but we like to give gifts! We, however, are not made of money. Black Friday sales are most often very, very good. I have actually read different things that people have written this week about how you can get the same deals for weeks on end. Although some stores offer the same deals, most do not. Further the deals that these people are talking about usually involve the high ticket items, and we don't exactly have the cash flow to buy big screen TVs and laptops for everyone on our list. The $5.00 kind of deals... those you basically only get on Black Friday (with a couple of notable exceptions). So if you have a lot of family who you want to send gifts to, Black Friday is just economically smart.

We stood in line at Meijer for two hours (basically without complaint) to purchase Wii systems. I would like to mention that as far as our children know, we just purchased a Wii for the firehouse. They were willing to stand there (or sit in shopping carts as the case may be) for the right to purchase something for someone else. In the end, Phil got his Wii, and I picked mine up behind him (for our family), but the kids had no idea that this happened. I would say that's pretty selfless on their part. However, their extreme cuteness, and Seth's ingenuity (he found a way to sit kinda underneath the cart) did earn Seth and Caleb a photo spot on the front page of our local paper! I think the experience taught them something about the virtue of patience, the willingness to do something that doesn't benefit us directly, and the reward that is often a nice surprise at the end.

Were there nasty people out yesterday morning, pushing and shoving and taking things out of other people's hands and carts? Uh-huh... Were there irritable store team members and rude customers? Uh-huh... But come on... These people are everywhere, all the time! Mostly I observed friendly people looking to catch a break at the holidays and capable staff, taking pride in their jobs!

So are Black Friday... or it's participants... worthy of reprimand? I guess you can be the judge on that one to your heart's content. As for me... shopping till you drop isn't all that bad. Especially when everyone in the house is asleep for the night by 5:30!

Lisa

It's A...

... Baby Princess!

I am late in getting this up, so I have backdated it...

Baby #5 will be another little princess, for which we are very excited (except for Caleb, who really wanted another little brother, but the idea of a baby sister has grown on him since we first found out, and he talks to her and tells her how cute she is, already, on most days)... Grace jumped up and down for probably a full three minutes and has told everyone she can think of about our baby girl! Here's her first pic:

Can't wait to meet her...

Lisa

I Feel Disturbed Tonight...

This week I have heard several variations on the thought that people cannot be your friends if they do not support all of the decisions you make, and if people disagree with things you hold to be true, they should keep quiet, because that is common courtesy...

I am finding this to be almost frightening, to tell you the truth. What is the world coming to if it is inappropriate to express our opinions? And should we allow our friends to travel down a road to destruction in order to be deemed supportive?

For some time now it has been apparent to me that a new generation has sprung up. As irritated as I was with my own generation at times... and with our push for tolerance in everything except religious freedom... and with our seeming inability to find reason as an acceptable filter for truth... I think this is more dangerous...

It is like mass groupthink...

I haven't completely wrapped my mind around it just yet, but I believe that when we come to a point where it is deemed unacceptable to intelligently debate ideas, we are going to see some catastrophic results. I don't have to win all the time (although I do like to)... and I realize that my opinion may not always be the most popular... or the most productive... or even the most right! But I do not think that my opinion should be stripped from me if it is expressed in a respectful way that creates thoughtful interaction with others...

In fact, I was involved, just this week, in a pretty good, sometimes heated discussion about health care reform. I'm sure that no one walked away with a new view on the health care bill, but it was still valuable time spent discussing options and preferences with friends. We do not have to agree in the end to be friends. We do have to interact in a way that is respectful and allows for differences in worldview. If we lose that ability, what's left to talk about?

Lisa