The holiday season can be treacherous, with the danger of the overwhelming merriment of the season oozing from every pore of the adverts driving commercial/retail machine. At the other end of the spectrum you find the Christmas ballads, many as heartbreaking as they are poignant, endlessly buffeting mixed feelings, and vulnerable emotions. On the radio, the television, MP3 players, the humming under one’s breath.
When we were children, did we ever understand what grownups meant when they talked of surviving the season? Why has it come to that? Why have we let corporations wave the green flag that starts the madness? I don’t understand why Black Friday gets to share the headlines with Thanksgiving, or worse, trample it in far too many households. Walmart brags that 22 million people hit its stores for Black Friday, which, sadly, now begins on Thanksgiving Thursday. Just like that, one of the few days still carved out for family gatherings has become frayed at the edges. Will Christmas be next?
No comments:
Post a Comment