2 days before Christmas
Posted by John Tackett on Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Under: Ramblings
Humm, if one is to believe the hype, the malls should be empty as no-one has money to spend. Apparently while they have no money, they have time to drive to the malls. My office is just a few blocks from Lenox Mall in Atlanta and the past days the traffic in and around the mall has been a madhouse. I get out of the office about 6pm each night and take a shuttle bus or walk to the Lenox MARTA station for my commute home, and I have noticed that the traffic has been bumper to bumper getting to the mall. Last night I decided to walk towards the mall itself and the parking decks had lines of cars just circling for that "perfect" parking stall. Insanity at its finest.
As for the holidays themselves, I lost my holiday spirit years ago when working in the insanity we call "retail management." No life, no time to spend with the family, and each year being told that you have to be open longer hours with less payroll. Oh I was told that I would get "comp time" for the extra hours, but it never worked out that I got the time back. For me, this time of the year is nothing more than commercialized madness. Stores and companies competing for the bread crumbs of the american consumer. My wife and I took advantage of the pre-holiday sales to purchase a new wide screen HDTV for the house. That is the extent of the holiday shopping for us.
At least the commercialism of the holidays has not tarnished my spirit in regards to giving. This is something I started doing about 5 years ago, the same time I went through a personal transformation. Even Brenda does not know I do this. I set aside 2-3 dollars a week into an envelope and the Saturday before Christmas I go shopping when Brenda is sleeping and buy groceries. Then I drop them off at the local church, this year it was the Methodist church near the house, with a note to give to a local needy family. They don't know who I am and I do not know who the recipient is.. that is the way I want it to be.
Why am I sharing this with you?? Hopefully it will ignite a spark and you will find some way to "give back" to the world. volunteerism, charity, whatever. It does not take alot, some baked cookies for the local church holiday dinner, a few hours at the local salvation Army shelter, donation of winter clothes, Toys for Tots. You get the idea. While I am not a big fan of just sending a check and thinking that is all you need to do, in today's economy, even that will do. Just give.
Before I go, just want to share some words with you from John Lennon. This is from the song "So This Is Xmas / War is Over."
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
Feliz Navidad | Glædelig Jul | Froehliche Weihnachten | Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova | Joyeux Noel
Merry Christmas everyone...
As for the holidays themselves, I lost my holiday spirit years ago when working in the insanity we call "retail management." No life, no time to spend with the family, and each year being told that you have to be open longer hours with less payroll. Oh I was told that I would get "comp time" for the extra hours, but it never worked out that I got the time back. For me, this time of the year is nothing more than commercialized madness. Stores and companies competing for the bread crumbs of the american consumer. My wife and I took advantage of the pre-holiday sales to purchase a new wide screen HDTV for the house. That is the extent of the holiday shopping for us.
At least the commercialism of the holidays has not tarnished my spirit in regards to giving. This is something I started doing about 5 years ago, the same time I went through a personal transformation. Even Brenda does not know I do this. I set aside 2-3 dollars a week into an envelope and the Saturday before Christmas I go shopping when Brenda is sleeping and buy groceries. Then I drop them off at the local church, this year it was the Methodist church near the house, with a note to give to a local needy family. They don't know who I am and I do not know who the recipient is.. that is the way I want it to be.
Why am I sharing this with you?? Hopefully it will ignite a spark and you will find some way to "give back" to the world. volunteerism, charity, whatever. It does not take alot, some baked cookies for the local church holiday dinner, a few hours at the local salvation Army shelter, donation of winter clothes, Toys for Tots. You get the idea. While I am not a big fan of just sending a check and thinking that is all you need to do, in today's economy, even that will do. Just give.
Before I go, just want to share some words with you from John Lennon. This is from the song "So This Is Xmas / War is Over."
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
Feliz Navidad | Glædelig Jul | Froehliche Weihnachten | Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova | Joyeux Noel
Merry Christmas everyone...
In : Ramblings