Why I Celebrate Buy Nothing Day

Why have I joined others in co-opting Black Friday and and turning it into a Buy Nothing Day?  Why do I celebrate Buy Nothing Day as a holiday in and of itself?

It started with having very little money: feeling sad that people spent their hard earned cash buying presents for me yet I couldn't reciprocate.  I started making presents.  Little linoleum block prints, collections of writings, self-composed music cd's, whatever idea presented itself.  Over time, this became my holiday experience.  Giving something of myself rather than a mass produced item made in China.  A one-of-a-kind statement of love.

It started when I worked at a bookstore in a mall, experiencing the mania that possesses shoppers beginning on Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving - and lasting the entire month of December. The frenzy, the anxiety, the anger, the exhaustion, the drive to push onward despite all obstacles to find the just the right gift for Aunt Bertha.

It started when Thanksgiving became overshadowed by sales events strategically designed to encourage more spending, more consumption.  Thanksgiving day used to be spent with family and loved ones. There was a certain comfort, a greater degree of relaxation present due to the realization that no place of commerce was open.  There was nowhere to go, nothing to buy. If it hadn't been purchased prior to Thanksgiving, we did without.  I find it ironic that today, on a day in which we pause to experience gratitude for all we have been given, places of commerce are open to enable us to go out and buy more stuff.

It started when I began to realize the great divide between those with gainful employment and those without.  When I became aware of the plight of the homeless, the unemployed and the under employed. When I became aware of the inequity in resource distribution in America.  When I became aware of the large degree of comfort experienced by some compared to the hunger, sickness and the exposure to the elements experienced by others.

It began when I started to ponder the waste of mass consumption.  The piles of gift wrap and packaging piled up on the floor Christmas morning, for example.  The remnants of gift opening to be stuffed into trash bags and hauled off to the landfill.  This is part of the traditional white American experience.  Deplete our resources and trash the earth for the sake of giving small acknowledgements of a person's value in one's life.

It began when I grew weary of the frenetic pace of this season.  When I began to reject the rote adherence to tradition.  When I began to redefine the meaning of this time of year for myself.

Buy Nothing Day is, for me, a celebration of gratitude and giving.  On this day, I am enveloped in calm and quiet.  I am able to reflect on the abundance created by simply being grateful for all I have. It is a simple yet revolutionary act: the act of gratitude.

I recognize the importance of commerce.  I realize that as a small business, an important means of staying afloat is having people spend money at one's establishment.  Yes, we very much should invest in our community.  By that, I mean we should spend our hard earned money at independently owned and operated businesses as much as possible. Additionally, we really should try to avoid buying things that have been manufactured overseas.  And we can support a healthier environment and our local economy by purchasing from second hand stores.

We can participate in the act of buying and selling, certainly. In fact, to a degree, we must.  I challenge you, however, to consider extending your moment of gratitude on Thanksgiving Day to the day after.  Maintain the stillness and the calm with intention.  Refrain from contributing to the mass hysteria of competing for the greatest deals of the year.  Allow others to consume those deals without your participation.  Simply allow something new to manifest in your life: Meaning.

LOVE!!!!