I am all for excesses if you are not involved in them to the excess. LOL. We are a generation of excess.  We are a society of excess.  We love living, even those of our society who publicly claim not to live in an excessive manner.  And it is my contention that there is nothing wrong with that.  It has led to inventions that were only cartoon ideas a few years ago.  The wrist watch telephone for instance.  We can all think of items that fit the bill.  Today our newspaper advertised itself as the years biggest issue and it was heavy.  I almost had to buy a wheeled cart from the Big Lots ad to get the damned thing in the house.  It had numererous ads for 96″ tv’s for prices that would astound you.  A 6′ prelit christmas tree for the low price of $ 18.00.  Who could ever buy another live tree with prices like that. 

There was a picture in the local section showing a man who had been camped in a tent, in front of the local BEST Buy since Tuesday waiting for it to open at midnight today.  Folks, I love a lot of people and adore many others but I can tell you with a great deal of certainty that there are very few high enough on the list to have me camping out to buy them a present.  How much could this person be planning on saving?  The DA took off work, probably giving up vacation time, which could have been spent with his family, or even possibly without pay, to save $ 29.00 on the purchase price of an electronic device that will be obsolete before the first pack of batteries goes dead.  And people wonder why the USA has lost the respect of the world as to our being a superpower.  Could the leader of the free world have evolved into a society of people so consumed with greed that they would lower themselves to “life under the bridge” actions to save money on an item they probably cant use to begin with.  Apparently so.

I like this holiday.  I like turkey.  I like dressing that goes with turkey.  I like giblet gravy, green bean casserole, and I like pumpkin pie.  I want to thank the Pilgrims and there friends the Indians for coming together and cooking up all those items.  The Indian that brought the little crispy onion bits that goes on the casserole is my choice for “Native Amercan Hall of Fame”. 

I am thankful for so many things that I could hardly mention them.  I am thankful for friends past,. present and future.  I am thankful for the people that I dont like as they make me like the ones I do much more.  I am thankful for family.  I can not imagine life without family.  I am also thankful for a devine being that made the natural world in the manner that allows me enjoy such things as forests, mountains, the Grand Canyon, etc.  Those are cathedrals of beauty that puts things in perspective for me. 

I wish each of you a happy holiday season.  Thanks to many of you for our shared memories.

GAry