it was easy, really. all he had to do was get rid of the center, which would have held everything together, and boom.....thanksgiving was stolen.
first, the halloween grinch made sure that halloween got top billing over thanksgiving. he made sure that people plan halloween parties in excrutiating detail. he made sure that costumes are an enormously big deal. he made sure that haunted houses are open for an entire month and corn mazes even longer. he made sure that the stores and the aisles were filled with so much candy that they practically smack you in the face the minute you walk in.
then, he made sure that sitting around the table on thanksgiving lasted only a coupla hours (and then we're on our way to the real enchilada - black friday!). he told the stores to get rid of the halloween stuff and put out the Christmas stuff. he told them to squeeze a few orange and brown cocktail napkins next to a couple of ceramic turkeys - in a token nod to thanksgiving - and call it a (thanksgiving) day.
he told them to decorate the store in red and green, not orange and brown. he told them to pipe in Christmas music because research shows that people spend more money if they pipe in Christmas music.
he told them to feature turkeys, of course, in the meat aisle, but he asked them to be sure to have a lot of holly and mistletoe decorations around the turkeys, not a lot of pilgrims and indians. as a matter of fact, don't have any pilgrims and indians, just holly and mistletoe. there.......that's better.
he told them to open their stores on thanksgiving, and they did. he told them that they'd make a whole lot more money that way, and wow, that sure sounded good! that sounded even better than the roast turkey sounded!
then, he told everybody else - all the mommys and all the daddys and all the aunts and all the uncles and all the grandparents and even all the children that getting in line at midnight is a whole lotta fun - because if you do, you can get a whole lotta stuff - and they believed him, so they got in line.
somewhere in all of there, he told them it was ok to eat their thanksgiving dinner, but don't forget to nap and don't forget to watch football! and, oh! don't forget to say what you're thankful for. that's important, too. (but don't get bogged down thinkin' you have to thank God. you can thank anybody. whatever floats your (gravy) boat.)
the families that i work with in my job have many things in common but the main thing that they have in common is actually something that they don't have and the something that they don't have is the thing that produces all the other (dysfunctional) things that they have in common.............they don't have a center.
just like the grinch who decided that hey, if he wanted to make halloween more important than thanksgiving and spending money more important than Christmas, then heck, this is a free country, he can do whatever he wants. and families decided that hey, they can do whatever they want. and they don't need some stupid "center" to hold them together.
families can do whatever they want. if they wanna have two mommys, they can have two mommys. if they wanna have two daddys, they can have two daddys. a mommy and a boyfriend? sure! a mommy and a boyfriend and then another boyfriend and then another? - sure, as long as it makes her happy.
kids who raise themselves because their mommys/mommys and their daddys/daddys and their mommy's/daddy's/boyfriends/girlfriends are too busy to raise them themselves? sure.........as long as it makes 'em happy!
going to church? nope. not if it doesn't make you happy!
having structure and organization and dependability and tradition and things you can count on in good times and bad? and an actual bed time? nope. not if it doesn't make you happy!
one of the greatest and most destructive lies that our secular/relativistic culture has bought into - hook, line, and sinker - is that nothing matters unless the individual says it matters. and if the individual says you can build a home outa whatever you wanna build a home out of - as long as it makes you happy - then you can build a home out of whatever you wanna build a home out of .
hell, even the 3 little pigs figured that one out.
if only the halloween grinch - i mean, grinches - who stole thanksgiving would figure it out, too.
