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While you may not be at work around the holidays, liberty is. Deciding where to go, what to do, what to eat (and how much of it to eat), are brought to you by liberty.
Normally the holidays provide a slower pace. That’s what I mostly remember about the holidays growing up.
For our family at Thanksgiving, we spent a whole day with each other. Most other days of the year we ran in different directions. But for that day, we paused. We watched Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, helped mom make the crust for her homemade pumpkin pie, piled into the station wagon, traveled to our grandparents’ home to visit our cousins and eat lots of food.
The long day meant many opportunities to make memories. My siblings and cousins made up plays and performed them for the adults. We showed off the latest and greatest fads. Some years it was sports cards, sometimes video games, sometimes fashion.
Laughter and good conversation filled the evening with enjoyment.
The next day, I slept in. After all, I had just eaten the equivalent of two, possibly three meals and there was no school.
That was then.
Later in my teens, I found out what Black Friday was. My battle plans of finding the best deals were thorough. I would even buy items I thought other people wanted to give to other people so that they could benefit from the cheaper price.
Black Friday shopping stories abound. I’ll never forget the overly ambitious shopper who grabbed a whole rack full of clothes, hoarding them for himself and expecting other shoppers to pay him more for the clothes than the store was charging. Security made sure he didn’t have any trouble selling any of those clothes or doing any shopping for himself. Guards escorted him back to his vehicle empty handed and told him not to return.
For others, shopping is the last thing on their list the Friday after Thanksgiving (or Thanksgiving Day as the case is now). Some believe it’s materialistic. Others refuse to shop in protest of establishments that are open on or around a holiday. They believe they are making a statement to owners that they believe it’s not right to expect people to work those days.
Allow me to share other perspective. Last year, I overheard workers at a national retail chain discussing the idea of working on Thanksgiving. One of them had said an acquaintance was criticizing her employer for opening the store on Thanksgiving. The employee, however, bragged about how the company provided meals for her throughout the day and paid her more than her normal wage that day. She said she wanted to work and that it should be her choice.
Those who don’t like the idea of shivering outside while waiting for hours to get a deal make fun of me for doing so. I respect their opinion.
When it comes to the idea of whether a store should be open, whether people should shop, or whether people should work on a particular day, I believe freedom provides the best answer.
