"Wishing Big" For The Holiday Season
I am going to have to write to the big-wigs at Sears. Or call
them.
What's the idea, anyway? What kind of a message is that to send
during the holiday season? Wish big?
But that's exactly what the Sears television commercials are
suggesting -- wish big.
Then again, why not?
People in this country are already living beyond their incomes
and are charging all of those lovely 'extras' to their credit
cards. So why not wish big at Christmas time? By all means,
spend your available cash on necessities like food, shelter and
clothing. And then put that expensive piece of jewelry -- or a
large-screen television -- or a computer complete with a $4,000
color laser printer -- on the credit card and pay it off over
the next two or three or four or five or ten years. If you do
that, you'll feel better. Much better. Then you can do it again
next year and extend that payment for another ten years.
Children are living with inflated expectations about what they
'should' want for Christmas, too. Toys? Books? Dolls? Stuffed
animals? Certainly not. Expensive electronics. Games. Ipods. A
computer for their rooms so they can roam the Internet and be a
target for every sexual predator out there. That's the thing
children need. Not something which will challenge their
imaginations and their creativity and their thinking skills.
Materialism and consumerism and capitalism. That's what we
should have more of in this world. That's what people need to
get them out of debt and back on the road to financial solvency.
That's what people need to help them be healthy and live more
comfortably. After all, if people are busy working to pay for
those "wish big" items, they won't have the time or the energy
to worry about what the politicians or the big corporations are
doing behind their backs.
Wish big, indeed.
Well, I can 'wish big' too.
Here's my idea of 'wishing big' for this holiday season --
1. I wish that people would be nicer to one another. You know --
the old 'golden rule' -- treat others the way you would want to
be treated. Then maybe we could say that certain things no
longer exist: CEOs who pocket huge salaries while they squander
their employees' retirement funds, as well as other types of
fraud and theft, not to mention wars and murders and rapes and
child abuse and spouse abuse and elder abuse.
2. I wish that those people who are intolerant of other people
-- whether it's because of skin color or lifestyle or economic
status or religious beliefs -- would learn to be a bit more
tolerant. Even a slight increase in tolerance would make the
world a better place.
3. I wish that all of those people who are victims of natural
disasters (tsunami, hurricanes, earthquakes) could have plenty
of food and warm blankets and sturdy shelters and money to
rebuild their homes and their towns and their villages.
4. I wish all of those people who are sick and dying and in pain
could find a cure for their ailments or relief from their
suffering.
5. I wish that those senior citizens -- and younger, people, too
(especially those families living without health insurance) --
who have to make a choice between buying their medicine and
buying groceries would not have to choose but would be able to
afford both.
6. I wish all of those people in the world who are hungry could
have an abundance of food, and I wish all of those people in the
world who need shelter could have a home to call their own.
7. I wish all of those who feel lonely and unloved and unwanted
could find find comfort in the love and companionship of friends
and family and neighbors and the community around them.
These are a few of my ideas about 'wishing big' for the
Christmas season.
What are yours?