A Collective Calamity Day...

I walked down the driveway to pluck a couple of sprigs of rosemary to poke about the turkey's skin before injecting the sizable foul into the oven. I'm not sure why we planted the herb so far away from the kitchen, but it sure does well there. The plant is massive.

As rain was pelting my ever balding pate, I stepped out even further to grab the newspaper from its designated holding. The additional weight provided by the amount of advertisement inserts caused the paper to tear through its plastic wrap and fall onto the wet ground. I briefly contemplated having to retrieve the wheelbarrow to get everything back up to the house. Somewhere amongst all the glossy inserts I think I saw a news article. I think it was about the decline and impending doom of American newspapers.

Our Turkey Day started with a numbness prevalent in the consciousness of those who own and operate in the realm of retail. It's the void that takes over our being due to feelings of overwhelming overwhelming-ness, knowing what all too soon lies before us, that calm before the storm or maybe a drifting into an eye of the hurricane known as the day before "Black Friday".

Black Friday is the official retail cash flow positive designate, the firing of the starting pistol for the feeding frenzy that hurls us brick and mortars into a 7-day a week, 4-week month, end of the year ritual. I believe that now even extends to New Years and maybe a little beyond as before tax sales and returns and the such have become profitable moments. For the small mom and pop shops such as ours, we hear a collective communal sigh of relief around 6pm Christmas Eve.

So now I'm contemplating the meaning of "Black Friday". Black, as in, not red on the balance sheet... or as in a bewitching and the bottoming out of grace, eloquence, and civility. I thought about sending out a quick blurb to everyone hoping most of you not having to work would just sit back in a nice chair all day and sip something naturally fermented while everyone else was careening and ricocheting off each other in lines and parking lots. I didn’t want to be responsible for the possible socio-economic downfall of western civilization, so I decided to wait until the aftermath before hitting send.