You know, I don’t write this blog for the money. I wish I could afford to do so; I could be one hell of a journalist if I had the financial resources. And don’t get me wrong; I appreciate every dollar I receive from the people who donate, or the scant few dollars I receive from advertisers. Without it, I'm not sure how long I could continue doing this. I would like to receive more, but I refuse to become a blog whore. You know, the ones whose e-mails you subscribe to, and who then proceed to send 10-12 e-mails a day, most of them selling stuff. But the bottom line is, I choose to write on my own blog because I believe in what I write, and that we all need to see different perspectives on things.
By the way, I give 10-20% of everything I receive in donations to charities or causes that I believe in. As cash-poor as I am at the moment (go ahead; dare to start your own business and you’ll see what I mean), I cannot pass a Salvation Army kettle without throwing some money into it. I can’t go to McDonald’s (usually for the coffee) without putting some money into the Ronald McDonald House tin, and so on. For years, when I worked in Washington, DC, every time I saw a homeless person begging on the street – and they are plentiful there – I would make a note of it, and give 50 cents to a local shelter for each one I saw. I would literally throw cash into an envelope and send it to them.
We all live together in this world, folks. None of us is any better than anyone else; we all need each other to get by. And almost every single one of us is within a few disastrous decisions or a single tragedy away from being that homeless person we step over or around as we make our way down the street, or that family who has to hold a fundraiser just to keep their home.
The difference between Donald Trump and those guys who sleep on steam grates near the Smithsonian is pretty much the luck of the draw. And as our society becomes more coarse and unthinking as a result of being led by right wingers for too long, we seem to be forgetting that little reality. If it wasn’t for the millions of clerks who work for Wal-Mart for rent money, but feed their kids with food stamps and depend on Medicaid or CHiP for their family’s health care, the Walton family would not have billions of dollars to play with. If it wasn’t for the back-breaking hard work of coal miners and oil riggers over the last couple of centuries, many of the industries we take for granted wouldn’t exist, either. We need garbage collectors and auto mechanics far more than we need lawyers, and and we all need doctors and nurses. Even those who are unemployed and have no money have a role to play in our society, because 100% employment would create an inflation spiral that could end up destroying our economy, as wages and compensation skyrocketed beyond control.
Put simply, we all depend on each other as a cog in a very large machine that we call a "society.". And as bad as you think you have it sometimes, believe me; there are most likely others who are worse off. And we should all help each other.
I think about that sort of thing every holiday season. I’m one of those unusual folks who has all but stopped buying gifts for the adults in my life. Instead, I give small donations to charity and toys to Toys for Tots and Angel Tree. When my son was little, I shot my wad on him every year, but I also made him shop for someone else, as well, so that he would understand what the holidays were really all about. No, let me re-phrase that; it was to show him what living in a society with other people is all about.
Regardless of your religious belief, or even if you’re an atheist, most people appreciate the spirit of the holiday season. I only wish that corporate whores had been less successful in bastardizing that spirit, and making people think the season was all about creating an obligation to buy crap for everyone you're even remotely acquainted with. We have been convinced that the purpose of the season is to give useless gifts to people, whether they want them or need them or not, because without that, the economic engine would fall apart and we'd all be living under highway overpasses. We are treated to apocalyptic visions of a collapsing economy when December retail sales figures are off a little, and proclamations of economic good times when December sales tick up. As a veteran of 18 years working in the trenches in retail stores as a salesman and/or a manager, let me assure you, it’s all pure crap.
I remember my years working for Thrifty Drug in LA. Every November, we would get shipments of Ronco’s crap products, (does anyone really think you can dehydrate food properly with a light bulb?) and we’d have to set up an entire end cap of Chia Pets somewhere in the front of the store. We would carry them for two reasons; we received a huge profit from every sale, and they were “guaranteed sale” products, which meant that any we didn’t sell were shipped back to Ronco or Chia for full credit. Of course, we would then get the same ones back the next year. Basically, the Ronco food dehydrators you see on store shelves right now were probably manufactured in 1995, and just keep cycling through. There were literally dozens of such items. I am here to tell you; while retailers claim they “depend” on December sales to boost their fortunes every year so they can stay open and provide jobs, the fact of the matter is, they would adjust. Oh sure; a bad December might push a retailer that sits on the edge of disaster over that edge, but Nordstrom, Saks and Target won’t go under if they have a few bad Christmases. And I think we can all agree that society could survive without any piece of crap ever made by Ron Popeil or clay pots in the shape of a sheep or Popeye with leaves for hair. And in what universe do we need those huge tins of stale popcorn that might as well say, “Oh crap! I forgot to buy something for (insert unimportant relative or friend here)!” on the side?
We all like to make jokes about the gifts we give to people that will be exchanged for something else or thrown in a closet somewhere, but it really isn’t funny, in reality. Instead of buying someone a piece of Chinese-made garbage they don’t need, consider giving that amount of money to breast cancer research, or a charity that feeds and clothes children in third world countries. Instead of spending way too much on a tie your dad or uncle will never wear, donate the same amount to a local shelter. If you have no money, donate a few hours of your time to a battered women’s shelter or a soup kitchen. And before you even consider picking up one of those huge tins of stale popcorn, buy a homeless person a meal. Instead of paying $50 for a “real” dead tree every year, buy an artificial one that will be good for 25-30 years, and give the $50 you save to an environmental organization that will help save even more trees.
The AC adapter for this laptop went up last weekend, and I was forced to go into Best Buy for a replacement. It was frightening, to say the least. Customers were stressed out because they had less than a week to buy that “perfect gift.” Salespeople were stressed out because they had a week to deal with the stressed-out customers. The Christmas music playing through the store speakers was “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentleman ,” and I was seeing no one experiencing anything resembling “rest.” And everyone was “dismayed.” ( Think of the lyrics; you’ll get it.)
The holiday season should be a time of reflection and merriment, not a time of stress and strain. I think it’s high time we took back the holiday from commercial interests, and started doing the right thing with it. We’re all in this together; be thankful and grateful for what you have and only give gifts for the right reason; because you truly want to.
Happy Holidays, and thank you for your support.
