As another November approaches, my family and I, like many others, prepare for the beloved holiday of Thanksgiving. It is a time I take to relax, take a break from sports and school, and enjoy the company of my family. Members of my family come from far and wide just to share a meal in peace as one. However, once the turkey has been carved and eaten, a beast of a different variety is laid upon our table. Not to be eaten, no, but still consumed and savored with the same regard as the poultry. My family in its entirety will look upon this prize, titillated with emotions of glee and exhilaration, yet all that is before them is a plethora of paper, a mere stack of shopping catalogs. I find myself watching them in a mix of confusion and frustration …show more content…
Breaking news headlines and reports of deaths flash as I witness millions marauding stores like wide-eyed pirates yielding shopping carts, scouring the aisles for buried treasure in the form of deals and discounts. Mortified I realize that while Thanksgiving nurtures thanking and giving, this behavior of consuming and taking is what gives Black Friday such an appropriate nickname. This consumerist greed fostered by this pseudo-holiday, however, has been played out for years on our television sets and is well noticed throughout the country. What truly goes unnoticed during this time of year is not the fact that we have an insatiable need for material possessions but is rather the thing that has been forsaken for those possessions: our family. Our families have been held in such contempt that if they were an item to be bought in the store they would remain completely unpurchased even after the droves of Black Friday shoppers depleted the shelves. That is truly how it goes, we suffer through a meal with our family only because we have to and shop because we want to. It should be the other way around,