We've seen it, pontificated about it, and participated in it - the shenanigans known as Black Friday in America or Consumption Mayhem.  

People punching one another, dropping shoppers with pepper spray, and busting through metal doors in collective behavior that was once reserved for desperate times not desperate consumers.  

The whole day is an indictment about American excess: fill your basket in the battle of Best Buy after you've filled your belly with turkey.  If we are what we eat, then we are turkeys in sop gravy.

I've done the Black Friday thing - even watched the Muppets in good company this Thanksgiving night.  And yet it doesn't seem to live up to expectations.  Why do we do it?  Do we really think one more tchotchke on the mantel or media time suck will bring the good life we so long for?

I don't think so and I've heard a rumor of something more.

Give your life to keep it.

Share what you can't keep.

Go to the least regarded and love them.

All you have is not all you've got.

(And the one that has me on the ropes right now)  All you do (or give) is not who you are.

A rumor of something more...

That maybe relationships are your greatest "possession" (not people mind you)

Thursday night dinners mean the world when shared in good company

Learning how to paint can be a ministry received

Wonder can turn a turkey shaped butter bar into an event

People are more worthy pursuits than the latest gadget

Slowing down & watching the sun dip across the square with good friends makes you rich

We need each other

Skype is a gift for folks stretched by miles

Always share your pumpkin bread

Maybe there is still time to reclaim what we are losing in intimacy, relationship, compassion, and community.  

I really wonder how many of those people crashing the doors of Target and whupping up on one another in Walmart are really satisfied with their stuff.  They've jockeyed for position, yelled, glared, run over small children and grandmas; and pepper sprayed one another.  Is it worth it?

When reading about heinous crimes, I tend to think of perps in terms of their first breaths; what hopes did their folks have for them?  And when they were tiny and the world was still kind, what did they hope to do with their lives?  Firefighter?  Ballerina?  Doctor?  Adventurer?  Walmart assailant?

After a few years in Marketing & Development at an accredited Zoo, I learned that grranimals tend to take care of their community, ecosystems, their young, and to maximize their environment for the continuation of the species.  We should really do no less.  Really.  Or we descend to less than the animals.  Way lower than angels.

A final thought:  A few years ago, I dove into Black Friday and quickly high tailed it out! Last year I returned because I loved my friend and she was jonesing to experience it.  At one point in all of the chaos and scrambling, I remember thinking, "We are not starving and this is not rice; why are we here fighting for stuff?"  And the DVD player I walked out with that day?  Positively sucked.  And I was too proud to return it.  That wretched thing washed out the few movies I watched and was an annoyance to us all.  It wasn't worth it.

Instead of great deals and steals and one-upping my shopping neighbor, I want to be about letting the overflow of my heart fill my mouth with love and compassion.  I want to listen when my neighbor calls my name again and again.  If my treasure is truly where my heart is, I want my heart to be with people and not stuff.  People might take the long road home with you.  Stuff will not.  

I've got a long way to go before I'm close to living the dream - this rumor of something more.  But come on over - move the books in the chair, mosey up and we'll watch the Muppets Christmas Carol together on the laptop (no TV), toast this Conundrum, and try to spread this one rumor...of something more.

For your musical edification:  Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam and the Long Road

& Dream a Little Dream with Eddie Vedder on a ukelele...yup...ukelele