Promise #81: Occupy Your Own Peace on Earth
- Nov, 22 2011
- By Tracey
- Moxie
- One comment
I walked past a wall of Christmas wreaths—at least six feet long and seven feet high—on my way into the grocery store. It’s not the first wall of wreaths I’ve seen, and it won’t be the last. Trouble is, it’s only November 22nd. We haven’t even celebrated Thanksgiving yet here in the states.
Why do we allow this madness to continue year after year after year? So a big box retailer can meet a year-end goal? So our house can be decorated before the first of December? What’s the rush? And why do we continue to care?
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but we’re not marching to our own drum. Can you honestly tell me the people working at Walmart want to deal with crazed Black Friday shoppers at 10 o’clock in the evening ON THE NIGHT BEFORE BLACK FRIDAY? Shouldn’t all those people, workers and shoppers alike, be in a tryptophan coma? Isn’t that coma one of our inalienable human rights?
We spend so much time preparing for this season that we create a world where we can’t be present at all.
What if we refused to buy wreaths before December 1st? What if we didn’t show up for the pre-Black Friday deals? What if we stopped walking around like turkeys? What if we didn’t jump for the carrots? What if we knew, believed, embraced:
Would it matter? Would you occupy your own peace on earth?
Tanja
*soft smile* – you know, it’s when I read posts like this that I’m really grateful I live down here in little ol’ New Zealand.
Granted, we’re *starting* to get some of the massive commercialism of the holiday season now, but at least we don’t have the Thanksgiving / Black Friday sales that you guys have. I read a great post by Leo Babauta on ZenHabits this week about the idea of doing a “Nothing New for Christmas” present year – he has some great ideas for opting out of the commercial aspect.