Shopocalypse and the Sovreignty of Sacrifice

Here we are again, that yearly couple of months. The time they call "the holidays" or "the season" as in "tis the season of giving/family". O.ur C.ommunity is much like a microcosm of a larger scene. This relationship is a pull and push, the outside can affect us and we can effect them. Let us not be un-aware of this power we have, and use it to work much good. There is a tradition around us in this "season", a tradition of spending more then we have. This is a time where spending more then we have is a daily activity, maybe it is time for us to consider another way to live, in fact I have heard this year called the "Shopocalypse". I myself have spent many a year burdened down by shopping for the various loved ones in my life, and have been left with guilt...guilt at not getting enough, or getting too much, or the constant shoppers guilt which seems to drag on until the spring. This shallow and hurtful experience does not seem to be the point of giving.

No matter what your tradition is, this is an excellent opportunity to give...and not the giving of having shopped for someone, but a gift of love. What is the difference you ask? Well it is sacrifice. Sacrifice is a word thrown around, but it comes down to giving up something for a greater good. Odin gave his eye for knowledge of the past and future, Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son for promise of a future, and countless heroes in legends and fables have laid down their lives for love, family, and future. "It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich." -Henry Ward Beecher

This is the sort of sacrifice I am discussing, a giving of yourself for something better, all around us people sacrifice time, money, and even their very lives for all sorts of ideas and beliefs. So is it so insane to suggest a "season" of sacrifice instead of shopping? Maybe it looks the same, maybe your sacrifice involves going out and shopping for someone in need, maybe it involves calling up that certain someone who needs to hear from you. Perhaps it is doing a kind and wonderful act in secret, leaving it hidden, sacrificing the attention a good act would bring you if done in front of witnesses. Maybe just looking at it as a sacrifice for the greater good can change how we view this giving and maybe do something for ourselves. " The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." -Charles Du Bos

This does not have to be about religion, creed, or belief...it can simply be good, an act of love, a drop of positive energy in the big bucket of karma, or just a small plus sign on the side of the balance of society. This is said as someone who is striving for this place, but has yet missed the mark. This is not said as an order or as wiser then you...it is simply an idea made into a seed. I plant this seed in the hope that it will grow into myself and those around...that by planting it, it can be made true. This "season" let the seed of hope for all our dreams draw us closer in this S.phere we all share, "Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give." -Edwin Arlington Robinson
Perhaps together this year O.ur C.ommunity S.phere can roll along with a seed and plant it with larger gratitude...and even better perhaps we can pull even more along for the ride.