First published, November 21, 2012
“When Black Friday comes,
I’m gonna dig myself a hole,
Gonna lay down in it ‘til
I satisfy my soul.”
The song by Steely Dan is said to generally be about economic excess and financial disaster, and since it was recorded in 1975 it’s definitely not about our current cultural tradition of shopping mania on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Still, I won’t let that stop me from using it out of context to make a point.
I don’t want to condemn Black Friday completely, because many well-intentioned people take advantage of the discounts on that day to buy nice gifts for their families and friends. And the stores they visit employ people who need the paycheck to provide the basics of life for themselves and their families. That’s all good. Still, the day carries a strong scent of self-indulgence and out-of-control consumerism that is troubling.
As a society, we have twisted the meaning of success to focus on what we have rather than who we are and what we do. The result is we want and want and buy and buy in hopes of satisfying our souls, but instead we find ourselves laying in a hole. It may be a financial hole from spending what we don’t have. But it also may be an emotional hole from discovering that all that stuff doesn’t make us happy or whole. What’s more, that gift we bought someone doesn’t secure or mend a relationship after all. It’s a sad irony that some people go to their graves already trapped in a hole of impossible expectations.
Okay, now I’ll twist the song in a positive direction. The hole to lay down in during Black Friday is the one that the Apostle Paul wrote about – the one where you die to your own ambitions and society’s temptations and follow Christ in a life focused on relationships. It’s a life where satisfaction comes from spending less time shopping for gifts and spending more time gifting yourself to others – in whatever form that may take.
I’ve never participated in Black Friday, not because I’m a good person but rather because I hate shopping. That’s an easy way for me to avoid the mania (and wag a condemning finger at everyone else). Still, even someone like me who won’t go near the malls on Friday needs to look closely at what kind of hole I’m digging and where I’m laying my life.