Holiday Spirit????

This lovely Black Friday morning I awoke to a quiet house, the boys slept in a little or at least were pretty quiet when they got up.  However, my peace was disturbed when I read the front page of the paper, The Billings Gazette and looked at the two main articles adjacent to each other on the front page.  The first one titled Shoppers, Stores Just Can't Wait For Black Friday was about the excitement of the official start of the holiday shopping season.  The second one titled This Means Everything To Me was about the Thanksgiving meal prepared by the Food Bank for people in need.

The reason that I was disturbed was the sharp contrast of these two images.  On the one hand, we had a story about greedy shoppers camping out in front of a Best Buy store at 6PM waiting for a midnight opening so they could all rush in and buy 42" TV's for $200 along with a photo of a lady with her shopping cart overflowing with toys from the Toys R Us sale that started at 9PM.  On the other hand, we have a story about the Food Bank providing Thanksgiving meals for needy folks and there is a person named Frank Tall Bull quoted as saying "I'm homeless and starving.  This means everything to me.  I'm just happy and grateful I'm still alive."

What is wrong with this country when in the same day and in the same newspaper on the same page these two stories could exist?  I'm by no means exempt from materialism and "want" but at the same time as I watch my boys grow their collection of toys, I'm becoming more appreciative of a more minimalist lifestyle.  I feel compelled to do something but I am at a loss as to what action I can specifically take.

Recently I've been to several of my son's friends' houses and seen the sheer volume of toys those boys have.  While I feel that my sons have a lot of stuff, their levels of stuff appear to pale in comparison to those other kids.  And those kids aren't living in what would typically be considered "rich" households.  I'm not sure what causes those kids to have so much stuff but nonetheless, they do.  With Christmas approaching as well as my older son's birthday, I'm again faced with the issue of limiting how much stuff the boys get from both us and others as gifts.  They just don't need that many more gifts and with my job situation, it is a great opportunity to restrict the amount of things coming into the house.

We are going to be moving before too much longer and I will be taking that opportunity to reduce the amount of "stuff" I have as well.  My shop if full of tools, toys, parts and a multitude of items that seemed useful, important or needed at one point in time.  I'm going to be selling, giving away or just plain eliminating as much as I can.  The same goes for the contents of the house.  Having stuff just for the sake of having it isn't necessary.  I'll be doing my best to unload items cheaply or freely in the coming month.

Going forward, I need to help those around me and in my community reach balance without being annoying or somehow pushing values onto others.  The two articles that I referenced above make it so clear that as a society, out way of thinking is so far out of whack that it shouldn't be hard to nudge folks into a more balanced approach to needs and wants.