Shop Around the Corner
Black Friday—
It’s time to turn around the definition of Black Friday; it no longer works as it did for shopping.
I say this as a former store-owner, although mine was not a big-box and therefor never a magnet for traditional holiday madness. As our economy shifts with new values (Pluto in Capricorn), the over-the-top spending for holidays also changes.
Many people still have the hunger for “stuff” with its cachet of owning new toys, fostered by advertising and the internet. Yet “stuff” does not = love.
As fiercely as people jockey for power and possessions, so too their blind drive for immortality. Through my years of caretaking my father as he deteriorated, it became crystal clear that “you can’t take it with you”. Not only that, but because a long slide into death can be incredibly expensive, don’t assume that your heirs will see a dime.
How the Baby Boomers cope as they age is another topic (but still under the umbrella of Pluto in Capricorn).
It is important to put food on the table, provide shelter and care for your own, but excess is an addiction that separates. We all have a longing to belong.
The irony of the U.S. is that the conquerers sought to destroy the ways of the original tribal cultures. Yet at this juncture, in the 2nd millennium, the vibratory push is to collaborate and connect. The impulse to isolate and conquer is on its way out.
Even though it appears as though the separatists have won the U.S. election and Brexit, these grasps for the old way galvanize the need for real change. In the U.S., the great landscapes seduce and call to those who respond to her beauty.
The trend is now toward living close to cities as young people continue to migrate away from less populated areas. This is a more sustainable model, but leaves large tracks of land vulnerable to drills and fracking with less voices to object.
Every holiday season, we move past the throwaway economy. Gifts become less coveted and more practical. Those who mark the holidays might travel instead of shop or donate and volunteer rather than spend.
I know of at least one group that gathers to protest a Walmart on Black Friday. The Walmart economy has decimated more than one community. Walmart’s model was to come in, eradicate the mom & pop businesses, hire staff just shy of the hours required to guarantee healthcare and then accept food stamps from their staff who shop there. Walmart has profited from government subsidies through creative sucking of the system. (Do you sense that I feel strongly about this?)
And yet, perhaps the ability for Walmart to decimate a rural or small town economy has been a continuation of the “manifest destiny” that prodded the early settlers to spread out to remote areas and obliterate native tribal life.
Centuries before, indigenous people thrived on the land because their existence was nomadic and/or cyclical. They did not “pull up their bootstraps” but benefited from one another to survive. In the 2nd millennium, the ideal is to celebrate the individual while working with a collaboration/cooperative.
Not everyone is on board to do this — it’s an organic process. Instead of scattering energy today, consider a restorative visit with loved ones.
Today’s void-of-course moon thwarts effective shopping anyway. As we go into the weekend, you might want to reflect on what the holiday season means to you, regardless of the annual hype.
I have read that some people plan to use this shopping season to boycott stores that sell Trump or Ivanka products– but since one of them is Amazon, time will tell how effective this is. Amazon is no Walmart, but it is a habit that would be hard for even a conscientious boycotter to break.
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