Once More With Feeling

It was some years ago when I wrote this post about people's choice of words during this time of year.

This year, I own a business and thoughts of how to greet people are on the minds of many of my fellow sellers.

The general consensus is that "happy holidays" is the path of least resistance. There are many who choose to stick with what they know, and a small handful of people who are still under the impression that theirs is the only faith in the world and it doesn't matter what other people believe.

Perhaps it should not, but when you deal with other people, as retail shops do, it is good business sense to consider everyone.

The problem then turns into this: to be all-inclusive is to be exclusive to some. To speak from your heart is to speak only to those who share your beliefs. From my previous posts on the subject, it should be clear that I do not agree with this, or rather, I do not think it should be this way.

So, what are business owners to do? Whatever they want, really. Even the generic terms offend people. There is no way to approach this without offending someone until everyone understands, and embraces, the differences of the people around them.