The Gratitude Post
Tickle-Me-Elmo, Black Friday, and Tiny Reasons to Be Thankful | No. 015
My senior year of college, my senior thesis project for my English degree was a scathing vitriolic manifesto against Black Friday. I am a child of the ‘90s, after all, and as a young child, I watched as parents’ quests to buy a Tickle Me Elmo led to arrests, stampedes, and concussions that replayed during holiday nighttime news. I couldn’t have been the only child disturbed by watching faces get smashed against automatic glass doors, helpless employees screaming while standing next to piles of Nintendo 64s, and grown women ripping each other’s hair out while brawling over the last Furby in Wal-Mart.
Given the invention of online retail, Black Friday madness has fallen from its heyday and looks nothing like the Shopageddon of the ‘90s. The Spirit of Black Friday, however, lives on. I’m not much of a shopper, and I have never been (thanks for that trait, Mom—I seriously underestimated how much I would come to appreciate this inheritance from you), so Black Friday will always grind my gears the wrong way.
Black Friday, for me, has just always felt - for lack of a better word - gross. I don’t like when consumerism, greed, and future clutter are running the show. No thanks, there’s the door.
I can understand the need to save money on expensive purchases or make magic for your kids or slice someone’s throat over a Tamagotchi (JK - I never had one of these, but I was a very loyal and doting mother to the similar-but-not-the-same Nano Baby. Her name was Claire). But for me, the day is just all wrong, and maybe it’s just too quick of a turnaround from the day of giving thanks. It’s a jarring 180 from our postures just a few hours before. In a way, it feels two-faced or duplicitous, like we’re different people than who we just said we were. And that’s just not my jam.
I read Melanie Dale’s post, Giving Micro-Thanks, and in this season of life, I appreciate her practice of thankfulness for the little things:
I’m developing a ritual of micro-thanks, and hey, tiny is in. We see tiny homes and fairy gardens and there’s that adorable tiny chef on Instagram who everyone’s obsessed with. We collect tiny succulents and wear tiny shirts (with huge jeans—I’m unsure about this trend).
So in the spirit of tiny things, I’m embracing tiny gratitude. Not that there is less gratitude but that I’m finding it in tiny bursts for tiny things.
Sometimes in our world of Big Problems, it’s easier to give micro-thanks than big sweeping thanks. Often, the big things are a mess. But good tiny things are always nearby, if we focus in closely enough to notice.
When I was teaching in my middle school special education classroom, we often did “Thankful Thursday” as one of our opening activities. Every person had to come up with various people/places/things/feelings/accomplishments they were thankful for and write them on the whiteboard. At the end of our activity, we had a whiteboard covered in things that made us happy, which were mostly tiny things. It was always a nice way to start our class, and even the kids who started off having a hard time coming up with words to add to the board eventually grew to really enjoy it.
In the spirit of Black Friday Rebellion, here’s a list of five tiny Thanksgiving-themed things I’m grateful for today:
My baby wore turkey-printed bell bottoms on Thanksgiving. As my friend Katie told me, “Those pants are iconic.” Check ‘em out:
It’s an annual Thanksgiving morning tradition to walk the Run Turkey Run 5K with my mother-in-law, mom, and teen. We did it again yesterday, and one house along the race course hosted a large table in their front yard with adorable tiny mimosas and mini breakfast tacos. They were giving the refreshments to any racer who stopped by. Yes, we stopped mid-"race" and enjoyed their festive offerings. Thanks, random strangers. How kind.
We also had to stop at a Little Free Library we noticed along the race course, (*can you tell we are super competitive during said race?*). I happened to find a book squeezed into the stack written by Sloane Crosley, one of my favorite essayists. I had to carry it with me the rest of the race, so yes, I crossed the finish line of the 5K holding a book. Fitting.
My mother-in-law made pecan bars that tasted like the Billings/world?-famous Caramel Cookie Waffles, only better. Yep, I said better. They were chewy and sweet-but-not-too-sweet and crunchy and perfect. I may have eaten them for my lunch.
My teen and I stumbled upon Dee Dee Sharp’s 1962 banger, “Mashed Potato Time” while searching for Thanksgiving songs since we both agree that Christmas songs need to wait until the day after Thanksgiving (controversial opinion, I know). We did a weird dance to the catchy little tune, and it made us happy.
I won’t shop today, but I will smile every time I read this list. And, that, to me, is a good Friday.
What tiny things are you thankful for? Comment, DM, or email me your tiny list. I’d love to hear it. Click that tiny heart if this piece resonated with you at all, and have a happy Friday, friends. I’m thankful you’re here.