Random Thoughts: Black Friday and Other Things

It is a rainy Black Friday in the Ozarks.
While thousands of crazed shoppers brave the fall rain and the other crazed shoppers looking for the best Christmas deals, I'll enjoy my comfortable couch, Costa Rican coffee and share a few thoughts here at Out of My Hat.

I was thinking --
If Black Friday is called Black Friday because it's the day that retailers finally hit the accounting black for the year, how can they do it on a day when they offer such huge deals on merchandise?
Yeah, yeah. I know that there is a huge volume of their sales that will come from things that are not at great prices, but if this is the day that makes up for the rest of the year's losses, they must really be ripping us off for the first eleven months of the year.
Just wondering ...

I was also thinking --
Earlier this month was the Leonids meteor shower. In a couple of weeks will be the Geminids shower. There are periodic meteor showers throughout the year. Most of them are caused when the orbit of the Earth intersects with the orbit of a comet (the Geminid shower is caused by an asteroid) and the particles left in the comet's path are burned up in the atmosphere.
Yikes!
I usually think about this as I am enjoying the shooting stars. Yeah, somewhere out there is a comet (actually, several of them) on a collision course with the Earth!
No worries. It's a huge solar system. What are the chances it could actually happen ...
... again?

I was also thinking --
Why is it that some people claim that God is in control, but seem to be more fearful of the country's (or world's) condition than anybody else?

I was thinking --
How did we let Christmas get kidnapped by marketers and retailers to become a holiday that celebrates greed and capitalism more than the birth of Our Savior?

I was thinking --
Why do we still have Advent -- a season to prepare for the coming of the Savior -- when He is here?
He was born more than 2000 years ago, right?

I was thinking --
It's a good thing we have a monetary system. If we still relied on barter as a means of trading for goods, I'd be in pretty sorry shape.

I was thinking --
I have a very blessed life.
And I don't know why.
I don't know why I have been so favored that I live a simple, yet very comfortable life. I have a great, loving family and more material wealth than is necessary. I am not rich by any materialistic standard, but I am doing well. My struggles are few and relatively insignificant in a world that is often torn by violence and greed.
Yes, I was thinking -- I have a very blessed life, indeed!

John <><