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Wishing Big For This Holiday Season
by LeAnn R. Ralph
I am going to have to
write to the big-wigs at Sears. Or call them.
What's the idea, anyway? What kind of a message is that to send
during the holiday season? Wish big?
But that's exactly what the Sears television commercials are
suggesting -- wish big.
Then again, why not?
People in this country are already living beyond their incomes and
are charging all of those lovely 'extras' to their credit cards. So
why not wish big at Christmas time? By all means, spend your
available cash on necessities like food, shelter and clothing. And
then put that expensive piece of jewelry - or a large-screen
television or a computer complete with a $4,000 color laser printer
- on the credit card and pay it off over the next two or three or
four or five or ten years. If you do that, you'll feel better. Much
better. Then you can do it again next year and extend that payment
for another ten years.
Children are living with inflated expectations about what they
'should' want for Christmas, too. Toys? Books? Dolls? Stuffed
animals? Certainly not. Expensive electronics. Games. iPods. A
computer for their rooms so they can roam the Internet and be a
target for every sexual predator out there. That's the thing
children need. Not something which will challenge their imaginations
and their creativity and their thinking skills.
Materialism and consumerism and capitalism. That's what we should
have more of in this world. That's what people need to get them out
of debt and back on the road to financial solvency. That's what
people need to help them be healthy and live more comfortably. After
all, if people are busy working to pay for those "wish big" items,
they won't have the time or the energy to worry about what the
politicians or the big corporations are doing behind their backs.
Wish big, indeed.
Well, I can 'wish big' too.
Here's my idea of 'wishing big' for this holiday season:
-
I wish that people
would be nicer to one another. You know - the old 'golden rule'
- treat others the way you would want to be treated. Then maybe
we could say that certain things no longer exist: CEOs who
pocket huge salaries while they squander their employees'
retirement funds, as well as other types of fraud and theft, not
to
mention wars and murders and rapes and child abuse and spouse
abuse and elder abuse.
-
I wish that those
people who are intolerant of other people - whether it's because
of skin color or lifestyle or economic status or religious
beliefs - would learn to be a bit more tolerant. Even a slight
increase in tolerance would make the world a better place.
-
I wish that all of
those people who are victims of natural disasters (tsunami,
hurricanes, earthquakes) could have plenty of food and warm
blankets and sturdy shelters and money to rebuild their homes
and their towns and their villages.
-
I wish all of
those people who are sick and dying and in pain could find a
cure for their ailments or relief from their suffering.
-
I wish that those
senior citizens -- and younger, people, too (especially those
families living without health insurance) -- who have to make a
choice between buying their medicine and buying groceries would
not have to choose but would be able to afford both.
-
I wish all of
those people in the world who are hungry could have an abundance
of food, and I wish all of those people in the world who need
shelter could have a home to call their own.
-
I wish all of
those who feel lonely and unloved and unwanted could find find
comfort in the love and companionship of friends and family and
neighbors and the community around them.
These are a few of my
ideas about 'wishing big' for the Christmas season.
What are yours?
~*~
© 2005 LeAnn R. Ralph. LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the books
Cream of the Crop: More True Stories from Wisconsin (2005);
Christmas in Dairyland: True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm
(2003); Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows Roam (2004);
Preserve Your Family History: A Step-by-Step Guide for Interviewing
Family Members and Writing Oral Histories (2004). Follow along
with LeAnn at
http://ruralroute2.com
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