Giving Better Thanks

Statement-making in a Brazilian shopping mall.

Tomorrow is a national holiday. According to law -- "On October 6, 1941, the House passed a joint resolution declaring the last Thursday in November to be the legal Thanksgiving Day. The Senate amended the resolution establishing the holiday as the fourth Thursday, which would take into account those years when November has five Thursdays. The House agreed to the amendment, and President Roosevelt signed the resolution on December 26, 1941, thus establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the Federal Thanksgiving Day holiday" -- we should all give thanks for our bounty, which supposedly we received during the year from God or Mother Nature.

The following day everyone is supposed to go out and get more bounty at places like BestBuy and Macy's and Sephora and Yankee Candle and Old Navy and all the other stores in the shopping malls across this great nation. We then are instructed to wrap up all the newly-purchased bounty and give it away to friends and family at another designated holiday in late December, when they will give us some in return. If we don't like the bounty we get we can return it, with proper identification and sometimes proof of purchase.

It's nuts, plain and simple, since there are so many people the world over with no bounty whatsoever. Instead of consuming, be it food or goods, all of us should spend tomorrow eating yogurt and oatmeal and writing checks to charities. I know that doesn't sound like much fun, but I'm betting it would be way more filling than all the turkey, stuffing and pie.