Black Friday

It is easy for me to fool myself with regard to Black Friday. I like to think that the Black Friday shoppers are consumeristic, and I who only goes shopping during normal business hours am not consumeristic. Being a Black Friday shopper does not make you a consumeristic person, being American pretty much took care of that... Being a Black Friday shopper makes you a strange mix of courageous and stupid. I am all too ready to trot out statistics about global lack and poverty to attack shoppers after i have just finished consuming what couldn't have been much shy of the American average of 4000 calories at thanksgiving. Saying they are consumeristic but I am not is like saying rich people are the ones with three cars, not people with two cars like me. I must be honest with myself and remember that consumerism is not a rash that easily is treated and goes away with an ointment; it is a cancer and we all have it at varying stages. Consumerism is infectious and deadly because it appeals to my selfishness and I am heavily addicted to myself. I have to stop throwing rocks at others so that I can assuage my own doubts and inconsistencies. But guilt changes almost nothing, love changes us--therefore let us encourage one another to love and good deeds instead of berating each other for our failures, as if somehow we can criticize the hell out of each other.