And not just in America.
According to the news it's a big deal here in the UK too, with sales expected to reach £650 million today. That's £7,500 every second, or £451,000 a minute, or so the papers are saying, I'm crap at maths so I'll take their word for it.
Cyber Monday is yet another thing we have to thank America for. Don't you just love mass, mindless, consumerism?
I don't like this. I don't like the ever increasing ways Britain is adopting American ideals. I don't like the glorification of mindless spending. I don't like any of it.......
But then I don't particularly enjoy shopping. And maybe I'm just being a grumpy old lady?
Cyber Monday, just in case you don't know, is a marketing term which started in the US to mark the Monday after Thanksgiving, making its first appearance on the 28th of November 2005.
Unsurprisingly the term was created by marketing companies to encourage people to shop online.
Anyway, I was just halfheartedly watching the BBC news headlines on TV when I heard that at an estimated £650 million will be spent online shopping today.
£650 million!
That figure got my attention, mainly because while flicking channels before I stopped to watch the news, I'd seen an advert about poverty in the UK.
So, although I know 'it makes an ass out of you and me...' I assume the 650 million quid is not being spent by the people who are being forced, by our corrupt government, to use food banks to survive.
The advert I'd seen about poverty in Blighty was for food banks.
Yep, food banks! In Britain! In 2014!
It's almost unbelievable isn't it?
Unbelievable that in a country as wealthy as Britain; yes we are rich, not poor as our politicians would have you believe, that people are struggling to feed themselves and their families.
It beggars belief that people have so little they can't buy enough food to survive.
Well, obviously not all people, because some people are splashing the cash with online shopping to the astounding sum of £650 million.
I don't care about people shopping, if that's what they want to do, good luck to them.
But it makes me feel sad that some people have so much, while others have so very little.
If you can afford to buy things you want, then that's great, good for you!
It just seems unfair. But that's life I suppose.
But in 2014 you'd have thought that in a so-called first World country like Britain, there would be less of a gap between rich and poor - unfortunately I think the difference is widening every day.
I know there are lots of people who can afford to splash the cash today, or any day for that matter, but what about the people who can't afford to buy things that take their fancy?
I wonder how they feel hearing that £650 million will be spent online in Britain in just one day?
That's assuming they have a TV on which to hear the news, or money for a newspaper etc.
And speaking of money, I wonder how much of that money is real money, as in money in the bank accounts of the shoppers, and how much is money they don't have - but credit cards they do?
I sometimes wonder about us humans.
I mean, we are seriously obscene sometimes aren't we?
While half the World is starving, the remainder shops for stuff they want, not need, to survive, like oh I don't know - food.
Grrr!
It was after listening to the sky high figures mentioned in the Cyber Monday news report that the little voice in my head said, 'Calm down, and breathe'.
So I did, I took a lovely deep breath and let it all out.
After which I remembered my favourite Polish proverb,
'Not my circus, not my monkeys.'
I can't do anything about the inequality, I can't ensure that everyone in Britain has enough good food to eat, I wish I could.
But I can make sure I don't join in with the craziness - if even just for today, so I won't be shopping online on Cyber Monday.
What I will be doing is taking some time to sit quietly and give thanks for everything that I have, that I am blessed to have lots of lovely food to eat, and that I don't have to use a food bank to survive.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
If, unlike me you are not uncomfortable about the mass consumerism and spending associated that Cyber Monday entails, and you want to read more about Cyber Monday here are a few links -
BBC News Cyber Monday: Online retailers hope for shopping surge
The Telegraph Cyber Monday: Busiest online day of the year
The Guardian Cyber Monday to kick off December retail spree
What do you think about Cyber Monday?
Good, harmless fun, if you can afford it?
Or obscene, considering people are starving?
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