Our friends over at REI condensed our mantra into a hashtag. Words to live by.

Also the hashtag that can spare you mall jail. You know. Yer all enjoying your pumpkin spice latte, with your 60 inch 4K TV on your shoulder, when some joker brushes past you and he’s got the gall to grab the last 3D-printing-self-replicating-housekeeping-drone (deeply discounted).

You see red, spit-take the latte, and hurtle the 60-inch in the direction of this total stranger who has affronted you. In that moment your concern is not for the TV, as it was 80 percent off and they are already restocking the shelf with another one.

No. Your white-hot attention is focused solely on the human, who now is moving at a brisk pace, glancing over his latte-soaked shoulder, and getting away with a deep discount that belongs to you. In your blind-berserker-rage you were unaware of the mall cops Segueing up from the rear, familiar with this scene, as it happened just an hour earlier. The last word you hear, before coming to in mall security’s dimly lit office an hour later is “TASER!”

Don’t be that person. There are plenty of them out there. Waiting for you. Planning their Black Friday. Only they won’t make the same mistakes you’ve made. They are veterans to this game. They answer to a higher power – one who feeds off couponing and hoarding, because otherwise they would have missed out on that discount.

Instead, get some fresh air this Friday. Avoid the traffic, the crowds, the rage. Take in the fall colors. Get some exercise. You can still enjoy that latte.

#optoutside and share your experience