An Endless Supply of Candy

During the week leading up to Valentines Day, I was shopping from store to store to find craft materials so that my grandsons and I could design and make our own valentines and gift bags (to hold the cookies and candy that it’s my privilege as grandmother to provide).  I was also desperate to find a gift for my gadget-passionate husband but that’s a whole other story.  When I entered one store, I found the entire entrance filled with bathing suits, beach towels and straw hats.  These displays were enhanced by a huge display of sunscreen and lotions.  Now I know that a lot of people do go to sunny destinations during the winter but this  all seemed like overkill for just those few who get away to sun and sand for a week. 

This led me to thinking about last summer when it was 90+ outside and I gladly escaped to a store where they had the air conditioning turned to 60 degrees.  To complement the chilly environment, I was hit with Halloween costumes, spiders, witches, monsters and tons of candy.  A couple of weeks later, I went back and saw parents shopping for “back to school” necessities and found the Christmas decorations a couple of aisles away from school supplies. Again there was loads of candy.  Then just before Christmas, the valentine cards, and again loads of candy, made an appearance.  This past week, I found that the valentine supplies were almost overshadowed by the Easter bunnies and eggs and guess what? HEAPS OF CANDY! 

Once July 4^th is over, it seems that we are hit with a whole string of holidays.  We have Halloween, “back to school”, Thanksgiving and now we not only have Black Friday but it seems Cyber Monday has taken over as the ultimate retail conclusion of the year.  It seems that we can’t possibly ignore this onslaught because retailers will remind us every time we enter their stores. 

Time seems to be slipping by so fast and the world just keeps going faster and faster. Whatever happened to just enjoying the time that we are in now and enjoying the moment?  I’m not advocating that we can’t have the joy of anticipating holidays but if each of the holidays are blurring into the next one, is this really “living”?  If we see Christmas trees, Santa, or the Menorah for four months out of twelve, isn’t it hard to get excited when it’s actually time for them to be celebrated?

I also know that the rush to push each holiday comes down to the stores that are into the commercialization of those holidays. But where does it end?  Will the stores be displaying chocolate Santas next to the Easter eggs in a couple of years?  It’s pretty close to that now. If we buy into this false commercialization we might just see all of the holiday decorations – and candy – out all year!

Have you noticed how much candy is devoted to each of the holidays?  I hadn’t really thought about it until this post. Any bets on when we’ll see the first packages of Halloween candy on the shelves this year?

We are always getting ready to live but never living. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Buddha