The Forgotten Holiday

In October, it's all about Halloween. Costumes, decorations and candy fill the stores. Then, as soon as Halloween is over, BANG! its Christmas! The trees are up, the music is playing, the decorations are out and the toys are on sale.

Now just wait a minute here!! What ever happened to Thanksgiving? It is now totally skipped over in the rush to the retail commercialized frenzy that originated with the birth of Jesus.

Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas. I love the music, the decorations, the gathering of families and the giving of presents. But everything in its own time, and let us not overlook Thanksgiving, which is an important holiday in and of itself.

Of course, Thanksgiving, like many other holidays, is all about food. But beyond that, it is about giving thanks. After all, that is the name of the holiday. In this day and age it is easy to skip over the act of giving thanks, or thinking of the things that we have to be thankful for. Most of us are more prone to complaining about what we don't have than being thankful for what we do. I blame the media for this, especially TV and the advertising that goes with it. Advertising makes us dissatisfied with what we have and who we are and leaves us yearning for the products that will make our lives so much better, whether we really need them or not. It doesn't take much TV-watching (aside from the news) to make you realize that your life sucks; that everybody else has more money, a nicer house, a nicer car, is better looking, and is getting way more sex than you are. On the other hand, watching the news can really bring you back to earth. My wife hates watching the news because it depresses her. I, on the other hand, see the problems of so many other people and I realize how good I have it. I might not have tons of money, a big house, a nice new car, the latest cell phone, etc. But I'm healthy, I have a decent job, a loving wife, two teenage kids that have done great in school and aren't into drugs or in jail....and I can come up with lots of other things. My life might be pretty mundane overall but there is plenty to be thankful for. And while each one of us is in a different situation, we all have something to be thankful for.


So Sayeth The Shack

Change Date For Valentine's Day

OK Whose idea was it to make Valentine's Day the 14th of February....or the 14th of any month for that matter?

For the majority of us, the 14th is one day before payday...the day when we have the least money to spend on those cards, flowers, boxes of chocolates, dinner dates etc to keep ourselves out of the proverbial doghouse.

So while we're messing with the dates of other holidays...Presidents' Day to make it a Monday, St. Patty's Day so the college kids can get drunk, and so on, let's change Valentine's today to something like the 16th or 17th so that it hits just after payday instead of just before.

So Sayeth The Shack

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The Forgotten Holiday

I love Christmas music and decorations, even if I am not a regular churchgoer. If they want to decorate and put the music on as soon as the Halloween candy has been handed out, that's fine with me.

The trouble is, there is something that is getting lost in the shuffle here, namely, Thanksgiving. With all the emphasis on Christmas already in the first and second week of November, Thanksgiving has been more or less plowed under. Guess I should sell my stock in Butterball.


So Sayeth The Shack

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