Fall is quickly turning into winter and Something about that and all the holiday abundance, we human turn into giving machines. As soon as the red kettles come out, we are ready to grab our wallets and let the giving begin.
Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that we become aware of our fellow man and the need to make sure that everyone can have a retail-inspired Christmas. There is nothing quite like the generosity that we display between the middle of November and about December 23. Last weekend, the Boy Scouts kicked off their holiday food drive at Walmart and there was no storage of volunteers. It was strange to see so many people with no Two for One sales going on.
I really don't think we give out of guilt - we give because it is a magical time of year. We are feeling festive and the wrongs done by our fellow man, seems to have faded away. We take on the official motto of a Barbie and GI Joe under every tree. I know because I have already gone down that road.
We have a family in our neighborhood who have had as many yard sales as weeks they have lived on my street. She saw me outside on day and asked what day the trash was picked up. Not particular friendly, they keep to themselves and are quite busy with those yard sales. Last weekend, it was freezing and they had the same stuff out as the weekend before. DD and I have done the secret santa thing and it dawned on me, this family should be ours this year and it looks like a go. But not for Christmas coming on, it wouldn't have dawned on me to give, to help out. We have lots of downtime issues ourselves and unemployment doesn't go that far - my natural inclination would be self preservation but since we are in the magically time zone, my mind is racing trying to figure out what secret santa will do.
By the time December 26 comes around, we are all given out. The kettles are gone and so are our thoughts of helping out for another 11 months. Too bad, we don't see the Bigger Picture. Myabe this year, we should ask Santa for a big dose of seeing the Bigger Picture and making our own magic in the next 10 months...
