For a few days in my musings, I felt so thankful that Thanksgiving is the only holiday that hasn’t been commercialized. But those thoughts quickly vanished when the whole slew of Black Friday ads started to coattail on Thanksgiving and bombard my tablet. BUY ME NOW AND PAY ME LATER!! Black Friday isn’t just one day anymore, it’s morphed into a whole week.
I often contemplate on the excess in our society. Everyone I know – and that includes me – struggles with too many things. We want a thing and don’t want it all at the same time. We have spare rooms, attics, basements, garages, outbuildings, storage sheds and storage units filled to the brim with stuff we don’t know what to do with. Often we save it for the “Maybe Someday” day that never comes. And still we want more and more of lots of everything!
Books have been written on the subject of excess such as Affluenza and The Story of Stuff. Books on how to manage our clutter abound. Odd as it may sound, I speculate that excess is one of our society’s biggest problems. It causes environmental degradation, debt burdens and the low grade stress of too many choices.
The other day, I had a conversation with reader David Hudson who helped a family of eight who came here from Burma (Myanmar). Apparently they could not understand the concept of a decorative item – something that exists just for pure visual pleasure, such as artwork or Christmas decorations. Where they come from, an object doesn’t exist unless it has some utilitarian purpose. I can’t quite get my head around that. Talk about contrast.
We have a gigantic array of things and opportunities available to us because humans are enormously creative. We want better mousetraps. Since we can imagine and visualize almost anything, we can always think of something better than what we have or the situation we are in. Ironically, our vivid imaginations can cause us to feel a certain kind of discontent because we conjure up things that seem out-of-reach. The antidote to that discontent is to mindfully appreciate the reality of what is while wishing for what could be. Then we can be content with what we have and still look forward to having more and better.
Embracing the simple, little things – especially delicious food – adds huge richness to life. Lingering over a cup of hot chocolate made with Droste cocoa (IMO the world’s best), real whipping cream, cane sugar and a dash of chocolate extract can lift the spirits high. Food has the remarkable ability to bring joy, comfort and connection. And oh boy is that ever something to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
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