Black Friday: the Power of Myth

I've taken part in Black Friday- sue me, I love a bargain for the kids. Really!

I've always assumed that story about retailers only hitting the black on the holiday shopping extravaganza was true.

I looked it up this year and learned that there are two stories that appear to be true.

Either it is an older 19th century story or the one that sounds truer: Philly cops noticed the bad level of traffic and higher number of shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving in the 1960s. Adding to the pain, an Army-Navy football game made traffic insane.

I'm not sure which story you believed, but did it matter?

The how of the name of the day after Thanksgiving is lost to most people. All that REALLY matters is the fact that retailers kills themselves to offer the best deals on these days leading up to the Christmas holiday.

The power of myth is such that we have taken it in and it is just part of the story we tell. What other stories are told that you know that don't matter where they came from, just that they lead to an end result.

One that gets MILLIONS shopping at midnight?

New Life

It's weird, sad and slightly freeing. I've been headed towards a completely different life for a lot longer than I even knew. It took me a while to catch up to realize it was happening. Thankfully, I was cognizant enough to see it finally and mostly ready for it. It's amazing when you have the rug completely pulled out from underneath you. The adjustments are jarring. I made mistakes, but like most I learned from them, adapted, and tried my best to do better. The reason you see that truck next to a storage place? That's the sum of my life right now. Never take for granted that you will work hard for something or someone, and it will end up meaning very little. You are guaranteed nothing, owed nothing, promised nothing. Anything and everything can be taken away in a heartbeat. I wrote this to my kids a while back: I tried to be the best father I could be based on what I knew when I knew it and how I could. One of the lessons for your life needs to be: you n...

Guiding Light

Most folk who know me, know I lost my father when I was 14 years old. However, before he passed, he shared a timeless secret with me—a practice that would shape my life in ways I could never have imagined. He didn't teach me meditation in the traditional sense, with incense and crossed legs. Instead, he showed me how to meditate by gazing at a lone light on the ceiling. When I was very young, I had night terrors that would wake me in the middle of the night. I'm sure it was terribly frustrating to calm a child from that. But my father had the way. I never understood how he came to the practice. But over the years, I've come to understand that my father's unique approach to meditation was, in fact, a profound lesson in mindfulness and presence. In a nearly pitch black room, he would tell me to find a speck of light, not unlike a star. Then focus. He would say, "Just watch the light, like you're watching a story unfold. Be the observer, not the thinker." I...

Check out my appearance on the The Toddcast Podcast

Click and watch the podcast recording of my appearance on the Toddcast Podcast Such a fun time!

Todd Lyden

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