By Margaret Curtis, PhD
Do you shop on Sunday?
This activity once was taboo, but now the place to meet and greet friends
proves to be the local grocery or drug store. So, does this behavior demonstrate, as
polls seem to indicate, that Americans are less religious in their attitudes
than they once were?
Perhaps conclusions
depend on the purpose of those trips. Observe closely how neighbors loom over
products as if they were treasures. They pull their children along, too, and
behave with extraordinary courtesy—at least in Dunkirk, New York. They nod and
smile, even when they encounter strangers. They don’t show road rage at the
check-out counters. They don’t scream about parking places. They just appear to
be doing exactly what they should on this sacred day.
With Thanksgiving
approaching, maybe this possibility deserves consideration. We live in America,
where no religion police threaten us. We enjoy the right to practice
Thanksgiving and Halloween any way we wish. We stock up on the bounty of our country
seven days a week, but, on Sunday, we go all out to find and relish those tiny
packages which seem Heaven-sent. The perfect squash? Oh, glory be! The hat that
looks like a bear’s head? Oh, perfect for that boy! Gifts, gifts galore pour
out of our stores, and are we grateful?
We collect the treasures
we find waiting, and store them away for the great Thanksgiving coming—and the
Great Masquerade, Halloween, and the Great Holiday of a Child’s Birth,
Christmas. We prepare and prepare, just like Boy and Girl Scouts. What behavior
could be more religious than this: To celebrate this nation’s productivity and
success by contributing pennies which sales allow to the good farmers and merchants
who keep our country running, and give us reason to be thankful that God put us
here—and not somewhere else?
No comments:
Post a Comment