Timber's Morning Coffee

I am regularly astounded by the things that I see when we get closer and closer to the Holidays. We enter a time when the earth goes dormant, but it would seem that the real crazies come out of hibernation.  It's those Black Friday shoppers. And now, it would seem, that there is a "Black Thanksgiving." Truly, it disgusts me. I see people being very hypocritical. We should be spending Thanksgiving weekend being thankful for what we have and the blessings in our lives, yet we see consumerism on a massive scale. Whatever happened to peace on earth and goodwill toward man? Oh, I think someone dropped it back on aisle 3 where they had to push an old lady out of the way to get the best deal for their already spoiled children. We profess to be thankful for the things that we have, yet we don't appear to be that way when we bang our shopping carts into other people, stab someone over a parking spot and get into a fist fight because someone got the last fireplace mantle be...

History holds that during Christmas of 1914, during World War I, troops from both sides (French and English vs. Germans) called a truce during the war. The belief is that the Germans set up signs in broken English that said, "You no fight, We no fight." There was an exchanging of gifts and even a few impromptu soccer games. This is my paraphrase. If you want to learn more about the story, Google it. Where is this kind of spirit now? Men were able to set aside their differences and remember what the season was all about in the midst of a war, yet we are unable to set aside our politics and give each other a break in order to spend time with our families (no matter their composition) and remember what Christmas, Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, Festivus, etc. are about. Perhaps we should take a lesson from soldiers from nearly 100 years ago. Instead of fighting battles about our differences and making SURE we are heard, perhaps we should look for what we have in common...