A lady on the news this evening explained that she has not missed a Black Friday shopping in ten years. A family tradition she shares with her two daughters. The woman was around sixty years old, the daughters in their thirties, and all rather morose. They were sitting on a marble circular bench that ringed a tree inside the mall. Fatigue hung on them, and how the hell they have been carrying on this tradition for ten years is bewildering. The story ended with the mother saying, “they wouldn’t miss it for the world.” However, what they had sitting on that bench was not a tradition on par with yesterday. Saving money, hunting bargains is work, and frugality in Christmas shopping is admirable; tradition demands something deeper from us. Pushing, shoving, and in some cases outbreaks of serious violence, have never been good signs of a cherished tradition. We all like a bargain, but without the battle. The tradition of never shopping on Black Friday is a tradition we can all cherish.