Seasonal Sadness

Sorry Lana but I don't understand summertime sadness. Then again I do avoid the bikini clad beaches. Summer is long gone but sadness rather madness marks this season. It started right after Halloween, that's right, Christmas decorations were everywhere and pre-Black Friday activities abound. Some retailers were open on Thanksgiving Day luring shoppers with deals where shoppers rush off after gobbling their dinners, waiting in lines and rushing around the store to grab their deals (I hope the retail employees had a good meal before dealing with this crowd. Also, see some the backlash to shopping on Thanksgiving Day at https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=557622844315156&set=a.495770773833697.1073741828.495680573842717&type=1&theater which has an image and succinctly states:"If you're shopping on Thanksgiving ... You're part of the problem."

It is a nasty circle where consumers via demand control the market but retailers discount the supply to lure the customer. It created Black Friday madness where retailers were opening at 5 am in prior years then last year few retailers opened ahead of a Black Friday on Thanksgiving at 8 pm and this year even more retailers opened on Thanksgiving. So what is the future of Thanksgiving? Well, according to pundits, the consumer is responsible.

So why my sadness? Two main reasons: I feel that Thanksgiving is slipping away and will be just another day open for sales like New Year's Day, President's Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day. As an immigrant, I didn't understand at first but later adapted Thanksgiving Day and had just begun to enjoy it with the family. My family has many people with different religious persuasions and some don't celebrate the Holy days. Thanksgiving is the only holiday where we can get together because it is not really linked to any major religion. My second reason: I have embarked on accepting seasonal employment in retail and have already seen some pretty bad behavior by shoppers reminiscing of "Jingle All the Way" and most movies of bad retail shoppers (too many to describe). Therefore, I suffer from seasonal sadness.

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My poem for the week

Since I am suffering from seasonal sadness, I will share some poem therapy (a poem that is a bit of rhyme with a touch of silliness to lift the mood):

ILLNESS
Picasso is calling my name,
Shapes appear out of thin air.
First, a cube, a rhombus and then a square
Are dangling and swirling above my head.

Red, black, blue and white!
The colors are changing in my sight.
My eyes are blurry, my brain feels dead -
The shapes are dancing on the walls instead.

Each time I focus and when I move,
My head gets heavier and out of groove.
From neck down to my "itty-bitty" toes,
The pain throbs and continues to grow!

From The Collection, copyrighted 2013 by Suzzette Dawes

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So what is your take on Thanksgiving: will it go away?