Gratefulness is Global

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Every year, my family participates in one of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions: Black Friday shopping.

We scour over the ads, we’re each assigned to grab a specific item, and we get ready to throw some elbows at people we graduated with for a $3 DVD. All night, we pile in and out of the minivan at each store, conquering every Sioux City strip mall that lies in our path.

It’s something I look forward to every year.

However, this weekend, I stopped and thought about how lucky of a life I live.

While it’s not wrong to want to go out on Black Friday, nab some good deals, and spend time with family, I can’t help but feel guilty when I think of those who can’t enjoy such a privilege.

While over 165 million Americans shopped ‘til they dropped on Black Friday, 1.3 billion people around the world are living in extreme poverty (less than $1.25 a day).

Obviously those living in other countries outside of the United States don’t celebrate Thanksgiving or Black Friday, but I wonder what they would think of our animal-like behavior and American consumerism this weekend.

When I have these thoughts, my mind drifts to the people I met in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala.

When I was a freshman in college, I traveled to Guatemala with AWOL, an organization at USD that sponsors service trips over the winter and spring breaks.

Our mission was to build a house for a family in need, through an organization called Casas Por Cristo. This organization, which was based out of San Raymundo, selects families that need homes, finds a team (like ours) to build it with them, and then connects them with a pastor from a local church.

The family we were partnered with consisted of a mom and a dad, three children, and aunt and an uncle who also had their own three kids.

Before we built them their new house, all ten of them lived in a small hut that was smaller than a North Complex dorm room, and their bathroom simply had a plastic tarp around it. Their house had no floor, and when it was raining (as it often is in Guatemala) the mud would seep in and they simply wouldn’t sleep. They struggled to have enough food for everyone in their family, even though both fathers worked in the city from sunrise to sunset.

Yet they were happy. It seems unimaginable to us as spoiled Americans to think about such living conditions and still being joyful and thankful.

However, they don’t find their value in material things; they find it in spending time with their family, being in nature, and the simple joys of life. Would we prefer this simple lifestyle, free of fancy dinners, riots at Target, and iPhone 11’s? After all, gratefulness isn’t something you experience just when you have nice things; it’s global.

So while celebrating the holiday season wearing a nice outfit, eating a hearty meal, and going shopping isn’t inherently wrong, take a moment this year and pause to recognize your own privilege and blessings.