Black Friday

 

Keep your life free from love of money,

and be content with what you have,

for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5

One of my favorite laugh-out-loud family memories is the year that we decided to go celebrate Thanksgiving in NYC with my oldest daughter, rather than having her come home to Virginia. After a wonderful Thanksgiving Day meal at a French restaurant, we walked toward Central Park as we started making plans for the next day – Black Friday.

The earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday originated in Philadelphia around 1961, where it was used by police to describe the heavy pedestrian and vehicular traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.  Black Friday is considered the biggest shopping day of the year. I never quite understood the “black” part of this term, until this foray into NYC.

My youngest and oldest kids took off early Friday morning, saying that we would all stay in touch by cell phone and would meet up at Macy’s.  We were about two hours behind them when my middle daughter and I finally reached that venerable institution.  When we were finally able to enter the store, we could hardly move for the crush of people everywhere.  Daughters 1 and 3 said to take the escalator up to the Shoe Department.  It took 20 minutes to accomplish that.  When we finally arrived, there were more people in the Shoe Department than there were downstairs.

There were security personnel everywhere, but they appeared to be little more than decoration.  You literally almost could not move, or duck the random shoes/boots that came flying through the air.  You couldn’t see anything, you couldn’t hear anything, and you certainly couldn’t accomplish anything. Daughter #2 turned straight around and fought her way back outside, finally landing at Barnes and Noble.  After touching base with my other two children, I exited the melee as well.

This year, we are all staying home – even though we’ve stayed “home” for the last 8+ months. There is great peace and contentment in knowing that there is nothing that I need that could entice me to join the “fun” of Black Friday.

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I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river,

I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.

I’ve got peace like a river, I’ve got peace like a river,

I’ve got peace like a river in my soul.

The Faith We Sing, No. 2145