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20131203

Enough with the days of the week!

So after Thanksgiving comes the dreaded Black Friday, the less awful but still consumerist Small Business Saturday, the slightly bizarre Cyber Monday, and now Giving Tuesday.  I have no problem with giving, but for some reason the idea of Giving Tuesday bothers me.

It might be the idea of grouping giving with consumption--that it's something you indulge in to feel better about yourself, possibly similar to the way shopping makes you feel good.  It might also be that we shouldn't need a day for giving, that it should be integrated into our lives regularly and not just thought about one day a year.  It might also be that holidays used to be about spending time with family, taking a break, or celebrating an idea, but that framing a day in this way, especially on the heels of these strange pseudo-holidays, has the potential to degrade the underlying concept of giving.

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