Buy Nothing

This morning, my Handler looked over at me and said, with some boyish glee, "Tomorrow is Black Friday."

"Um, yes," I replied, more than a bit surprised. What did he care about Black Friday?

"I'm going to have my friends in the U.S. buy me some things," he continued. "And they will be coming back to China for their Christmas breaks, so they can bring it me. Of course, things aren't that much cheaper than they are here..."

"True," I agreed. "Of course, there is an element among the leftist, anarchist, hippie, counter-culture crowd that celebrates Buy Nothing Day."

He looked at me quizzically.

"Instead of spending all your money and paying into corporate greed, you buy nothing on the day after Thansgiving. Instead, you spend the day with your family, doing things together: talking, hanging out, watching movies — provided you already own them — making Christmas ornaments, baking cookies... You get the idea."

More quizzical looks. "But, uh, how does putting things on sale contribute to corporate greed?" he asked honestly.

"Well, a corporation won't sell things just to lose money, and once you're in the store, they are relying on you spending money on things you didn't want. Beyond that, even if something is on sale, if it's something you don't need, you've still wasted money. Sales are part of the whole consumer culture. Buy Nothing Day encourages people to resist judging themselves and others by what they own. Instead, we should focus on who they are or what they do. It resists consumerism and capitalistic greed and international imperialism." (I threw in a few -isms I knew would resonate, but it's all true, I promise.)

I looked up. My Handler was looking down, and shaking his head a bit. "You're actually making me think," he said. "I don't usually think. We need to talk about something else now."

I'll probably break my vow and buy something tomorrow; my Thanksgiving dinner isn't until Saturday, and I'm sure I've forgotten something. I cut myself some slack since I'm living overseas. But how's this for a deal: I promise to buy nothing on Sunday, instead.