7ToF: Black Friday edition

1. We don't usually shop on Black Friday, not because of any moral high ground, but because I can't stand crowds. But since we'll be in Seattle this year, we may have to make an exception. We haven't exactly figured out what we're doing yet. We've got the weekend with Mel and our friends Kami and Laurel, and then Monday and Tuesday Sam and I are doing a couple of college tours. Should be a fun trip. Shopping may occur.

2. I do, however, have moral high ground feelings about shopping on Thanksgiving day. I'm not religious about Thanksgiving, but can't some things be exempt from consumerism? Can't we wait one full day to start the shopping extravaganza? Although I don't usually shop on Black Friday, I get that a lot of people think it's fun--sort of like a safari. I can understand that, and after all, most of us do have shopping we need to do for Christmas. I concede Black Friday. But to me, shopping on Thanksgiving day is just wrong. And if nobody went, they wouldn't do it. This is something we bring on ourselves.

3. But on the other hand, why worry about it? I mostly ignore it. If somebody else thinks it's a good idea, why do I care? I can imagine someone who has no one to spend Thanksgiving with, who has whiled away the day while everything is closed watching football or poking around online, who might be overjoyed at the chance to get out of the house and go somewhere Thanksgiving night. So maybe I should just get over my moral outrage and leave it alone.

Actually, now that I think about it, when I was in my late teens/early twenties, we used to load up the family and all go see a movie on Thanksgiving night. It's not shopping, but it's still an activity that requires employees to cut short their holiday. Hmmmm. I am reconsidering my Thanksgiving shopping aversion.

4. I truly, truly need a break from Facebook. Intellectually I know that if someone does or doesn't respond to something I say on Facebook, it most likely has nothing to do with me. But knowing that intellectually and dealing with in reality are two different things. Whenever I start getting paranoid about things that people are or aren't saying to me on FB, I know it's time for a break for at least a couple of weeks. Let me know if I miss anything exciting. (in all the times I've taken FB breaks, I don't think I've ever missed anything exciting.)

5. We've had Sam's best buds here a couple of evenings this week, including a sleepover last night. They're great guys. You know and expect that you'll miss your kid when they move out, but I think the fact that you'll miss their friends gets less press. It's going to be awfully quiet around here next year.

6. I've had several conversations with people recently about food fads, and how the food(s) that everyone is avoiding today will be the ones you should prioritize in a couple of years (think eggs, or coconut oil, or red meat). But you know what food advice never, ever changes? Eat your vegetables. That has never changed from childhood until now. We should swap our favorite ways to fix veggies.

7. This was going to be its own entire post, but I think I'll just say it briefly instead. The post title would have been "Hold on Loosely" and I was going to riff on Julie's statement that we're all wrong, constantly. We get so attached to our own opinions, our own interpretations of events, our sure "knowledge" of what is capital-R Right. But we're still limited by our backgrounds, our inability to know the future, our penchant for simplifying complex problems down to the bits of them we want to see. There's just not much point in getting attached to our opinions. If we're willing to stay open, sometimes we get new, unexpected insights.

Have a great weekend. Hold on loosely.