Buy (almost) Nothing Day

In the last couple of years I have been trying to resist the urge to buy stuff on the day after Thanksgiving. Mostly because I hate traffic (especially in the very poorly designed shopping areas of the Quad Cities) and don’t like to wait in line, but also because it is kind of sickening how much we are addicted to ‘stuff’ in this country. I really am not a fan of Christmas shopping altogether.

Actually, some anti-consumerist groups have started a day called ‘Buy Nothing Day,’ which (not so coincidentally) happens to fall on the day after Thanksgiving:

http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/

Although I was unable to completely buy nothing, --I bought a cup of coffee from a local coffee shop, a pound of fair trade coffee, some brown sugar and some organic yogurt from a local health food store, and a cheeseburger and blizzard from Dairy Queen (I know that one doesn’t really fit with the rest)--I think I did alright for the biggest shopping day of the year. Know also that I did manage to resist $9.00 512MB USB thumb-drives.

It was nice day of drinking coffee, reading, going to Festival of Trees and helping decorate the church.

Let’s remember, this year, what Christmas is really about.

Mike