Ho, Ho, oh ouch get off me, merry stampeding!

Wow, I understand the thrill of a great deal. Face to face bartering and trading have been the platform for buying and selling for millennia. I don't mind getting a little heated or doing a little extra homework to get the best deal possible. But man oh man Black Friday is another experience. Consider thousands of cash strap, visa maxed consumers stirred to a frothy frenzy by days and days of circulars, advertisments and TV commercials. Add the desperation to pull off one more 'ideal' Christmas before master card says no more and you have entered the Black Friday zone. Adults become lower than children, greed replaces any vesitage of common love for fellow man, men women and children are litterally trampled, some to the point of death. All to the muzac soundtrack of "have a holly jolly christmas.... it's the best time of the year...." At least this day shows us what we spend the rest of the year trying to hide, our true humanity as expressed through the greed, lust and avarice of the human heart. There will be a little additional irony this Christmas season as I sing "God bless the merry gentlemen let nothing you dismay...." as at least one family will be burying a loved one before the new year.

Am I cynical and cool toward the whole holiday thing? Yes, when it comes to what it has been made into esspecially this year. Do I love the holiday seeason also? YES! Time with family, tradition, good food and friends make it all worth while. And these things cannot be purchased at Walmart or discounted at Sears. The problem many face is there is nothing more to the holiday than the deal and the discount because for many the things that matter, relationships with friends and family are missing or non existent. Your call to action this Christmas is to invite the coworker, neighbor or friend into the blessings that only can be expereience through human relationships blessed by the grace of God. This is a true gift that makes all the rest of this silly sinful nonsense seem like dung in comparison.