We all have them: things we're thankful for. Or, at least we should be.

I, for one, am thankful for the exact life I have. The people, the family, the friends, the connections, the objects, the activities, the body. It's all perfect just the way it is. How could it be otherwise?

I'm also thankful that I'm still existing on this side of the grass. Can't forget to mention that.

But, what about other folks living here in America? Watching the commercials being shown to my son and I during that commercial break made me realize that American Thanksgiving has subtly changed from a tradition of gathering in gratitude, to a new tradition of a celebration of consumption and consumerism. And I'm not meaning consumption of tofurkey or turkey and stuffing.

Now, it appears that the actual celebration of the accepted Thanksgiving tradition on the last Thursday near the end of November is now being dwarfed by the waiting in anticipation for a burgeoning Thanksgiving tradition that is commonly now known as Black Friday.

For my non-American readers, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, the Friday after. It's becoming a very special day in the American economy, and in the long line of holiday traditions.

It is a day of buying goods. A day of excess, in my opinion. A day of smokin' hot deals on most everything a person can think of acquiring for themselves and those they 'love'. The deals start early, now they even are starting the entire week of Thanksgiving, but mostly they start during the actual wee morning hours of Black Friday and continue till midnight.

This is the day when millions of Americans and American residents don't drag their carcasses out of bed so as to go to work that day, but rather they drag their hiney out of bed in the middle of the night, and I bet some don't even go to bed that night, and then head down to their favorite everything-in-one-place store or superstore to stand in line awaiting for the store doors to open at 5:00 a.m. or some similar early morning hour.

I read on msn.com that this year people somewhere in the United States actually started camping out in front of certain stores one week before Black Friday. Yes, you read that right. Seven days before the day after Thanksgiving people had little portable pup tents and sleeping bags and chairs and blankets and they took turns, for pee breaks I'm assuming, camping out on the concrete sidewalks in front of stores so as to be assured their place in line when those smoking' deals are released to the salivating public come Black Friday daybreak. They did this twenty-fours hours a day. For seven days. Non-stop.

How unbelievable, eh?

Some of you may even remember reading about that horrific event on last year's Black Friday when a full-grown male retail store employee was literally trampled to death after he opened the front glass entrance doors, and then didn't get out of the way fast enough, at this one popular American icon superstore, to let the waiting throngs of thousands in to the store so they can grab within their reach all those smokin' hot deeply discounted deals on things they just 'had to have'.

Yeah, everyone shouldn't miss out when underwear is two-for-the-price-of-one, holiday wrapping paper is only five-cents a roll, or a five-pound bag of pretzels is discounted so much it's almost free.

Rrrrriiggghttt.

This wasn't a case of a fragile elderly grandma getting trampled: the person who literally died under the feet of hundreds of other humans was a grown man well over six-feet tall and larger than 225 pounds in size.

Let's imagine what this man's obituary should have stated: "Joe D. Blow, age: XX, died under the feet of greed and commercial consumerism during the early morning hours of American Black Friday 2009. He was a wonderful son and dutiful superstore employee. He loved his job, and was great at opening doors to help his customers. In fact, so much so, that he lost his life that day so his customers could be the first to buy stuff for their loved ones for Christmas to show THEM how loving and kind and considerate THEY are. He was loved, and will be missed."

Think about this at length.

We're not talking about the 'Running of the Bulls' in Spain, where men voluntarily decide to potentially lose their life by running along with and perhaps getting gored amongst a stampeding group of enormous horned bulls. We're talking about a human who died being trampled by other humans while unlocking and opening a building's glass doors so people have first access to early morning SALE items in a retail store.

If that isn't the penultimate example of commercial consumerism and the level it has lowered itself to, I don't know what is.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that some of these sales going on at this time of year can be pretty appealing. And, I'm all for doing my part to raise the retail consumer sales index in this country.

Nevertheless, I remember about five years ago that I wanted one of those new, at the time, computer flash drives. The price on the one I wanted was hacked by half, so I would've saved about $30. So, I decided that I would get up early to see what all this fuss was about regarding Black Friday.

I drove 10 miles to a huge local electronics store that was participating in the Black Friday sale frenzy. When I arrived at the store in the dark morning hour of four a.m. I saw that literally thousands of people were standing outside the store in a huge huddled thick line that formed in front of the store and disappeared around the corner at the far back end of the building. That was nuts.

I left. I didn't want this item that I 'needed' that badly. But these people wanted their stuff pretty badly and obviously, I guessed. It appeared that some had been there since before midnight, or even the day before, judging by the length of the line.

I had not done something like that before, nor since. It's not worth it.

But, wait: there's more! (Quoting that famous line from those series of late night infomercials here in America.)

Now, people like me who are store-shopping adverse can participate in Cyber Monday!

Also known as 'smokin' hot deals on websites the first Monday after American Thanksgiving.'

I made that up. But, it truly is the same thing as Black Friday, only one does not have to leave their abode to get these smokin' hot deals. They only have to turn on their computer and let their fingers do the walking on their web-connected keyboards.

Sweet.

Now we don't have to worry about anyone getting killed by our greed as we participate in this developing Thanksgiving and holiday tradition. We just have to worry about breaking a nail as we type.

Now we don't have to worry about the hassle and stress on our self and our families as we plan those week-long camping trips to the front sidewalk of our favorite mega-superstore. We just have to make sure we pay our Internet provider bill that month so we don't lose access to the web on Cyber Monday.

And, while we're at it, perhaps all we really need to do is work at figuring out what it is about celebrating the Thanksgiving tradition and saying "Happy Thanksgiving" that we are truly happy for.

Commercialism? Giving thanks? The fact that we're still alive? Loving families and friends? Freedom? The weather? Having money in the bank? Not having money in the bank? Free Internet down at the local library? A donut and coffee from Starbucks every day? Black Friday becoming a permanent part of the Thanksgiving and holiday traditions?

There are countless things that we might want to consider being thankful for, if we're so inclined. And maybe doing this will help those of us living in America to remember just what it is we're giving thanks for when American Thanksgiving rolls around.

I would hope that folks down here in the United States of America truly believe that Thanksgiving is more than another holiday tradition which signifies the start of 30 days of shopping and holiday deals before Christmas Day.

I know I do. But it's easier for me.

I'm Canadian.

Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'

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