If you're reading this on a handheld device while standing in a line outside a big box store in the wee, small hours of the morning before even a hint of daylight hoping to snag a once-in-a-lifetime-deal that really isn't on a new television, a new cell phone, a new refrigerator freezer combination, or a brand spanking new gaming console, please go home now.
All of us who have the capabilities to read this blather already have all the physical possessions we shall ever need. Anything you're standing in line for now or elbowing folks out of the way to get to later in the day as Black Friday accelerates is sheer and absolute greed.
Thanksgiving and this is still Thanksgiving my friend, is to celebrate with friends, old and new and not to acquire more things to put in the basement or attic with the other things we already own and don't use.
Many years ago in Germany, I had an acquaintance who described Americans as "people who buy things they don't need with money they don't have to impress people they don't like." OUCH. I disliked him for that characterization but I always think about what he said when Black Friday rolls around and I'm forced to concede I cannot argue with his point.
I live in Norwich, Connecticut, a town of about 40,000. If I were to add up all the square footage of all the shops in our downtown I suspect it's a lot less than the floor space in the average Super Box Store that already has two or more zipcodes (and coming soon, time zones). It's getting better in Chelsea and will keep growing but the big bucks head to the Big Box stores. Fair enough, I guess.
I can be gracious and concede that reality because tomorrow is Small Business Saturday, and assuming you're not tuckered out from that super deal you got on the 1932 hand-carved mahogany Terraplane at MaxBucks MegaStore, you could support one or more of the local shops where you live, all of whom help make your city or town, as they do mine, an even better place to come home to.
And it's even better when you're a part of something bigger than yourself, like growing the place you call home just a little bit more.
-bill kenny
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