Black Friday Shopping Mania Sunday, Nov 30 2008

[Guest guest]

Black Friday Shopping Mania Sunday, Nov 30 2008

 

My kid told me not to write about Black Friday. She loves going to

the shops, seeing all the crazy people, and grabbing all the good

deals on all kinds of things. I have to admit that I couldn't help

myself.

 

From the name of this day, one would think that it was some sort of

dark holiday. What on Earth does the name " Black Friday " conjure up?

Good Friday is the day Jesus was murdered which seems odd that the

day that the prophet is murdered would somehow be good. Then what

exactly did black Friday conjure up? Maybe is was a day that all the

billionaires go down into a vault and do some sort of dark ritual to

make sure that the poor minions gave up their money on more stuff

that they definitely did not need.

 

I was overcome when I entered Wal-Mart packed almost entirely with

grossly obese people pawing over cheaply made trinkets. Some of my

favorites were a four foot Barbie, the Emo Barbie that comes with

black gothic clothes, and cuts on the wrist. I had to take a few

steps back from that one. Some of my other favorites include the

machines that are poorly made and basically no one in their right

mind would buy. Notice I said " in their right mind " . Who says anyone

on Black Friday is in his or her right mind. How about Bonzo's grill

that lights up for nighttime grilling?

 

As I walked amongst the myriad people and the piles and piles of

items that were quickly and cheaply assembled in China most likely

containing some form of lead or other contaminate, I had to gasp.

What on Earth brought Americans to this ridiculous celebration of

indulgence and waste? I had to wonder what percentages of these

presents were simply placed into the landfill when we were finished

opening them. I had to think that there had to be a large percentage

of rubbish considering the wrapping and the tremendous amount of

purely worthless items that would be placed under the tree. What

drives people to amass useless garbage anyway? What drives people to

give away piles and piles of useless refuse?

 

Do we equate tons and tons of debt, garbage, and ridiculous items to

love? How did this come about? What are we saying when we do this?

Let's say I get an Emo Barbie for my niece. Will she think I love

her, because I got her a cheap present that probably has lead in it?

Or is all this mania about making myself look good. After all I was

powerful enough to purchase all these crazy stuff, I'm really a great

person, see? I'm really beginning to think that it's an ego reaction.

You know, the poor little person who can't buy anything versus the

great person who has lots of stuff. Who cares if you don't have

bunches of stuff.

 

This brings me to an incident years ago with my ex-husband. I was a

young whipper snapper, and we went to visit my wealthy aunt. You know

the person who has everything. We got corralled into going to church

with her. I was at the time a very compliant Christian. My ex-husband

was not, however. The first place we went was Sunday school where a

bunch of Southern Baptists crooned about how the Lord had blessed

them with lots of stuff. The junk they had collected was proof that

their god was greater than the heathen gods. After all if their god

was that great they would have bunches of stuff too, right? I guess

now the heathen god (China) has to loan money to the Christian god

(USA) now. Besides the heathen god's people make everything now

anyway. I digress. Anyway as they went on and on about how all other

people were poor and stupid and non-Christian, my ex-husband who

happened to be Asian became very insulted and left the Church. It

took me years to figure out what type of racist nonsense caused the

insult.

 

When I first went to Thailand, I spent half my time crying about the

poor people. I spent so much time grieving over their lack of stuff

that I forgot to notice that they didn't care. They were perfectly

happy living with less. They didn't care if a cobra was winding its

way down the road next to their house that had no hot water. They

didn't care if they slept directly on the floor or had only one

blanket. They did enjoy spending time with each other, and sometimes

they would take what little food they had to feed some old scroungy

dog outside. They always helped their family members out and

sometimes everyone lived together in small huts. I was amazed how

people living along the river would recycle all sorts of things to

make them useful. I had always been fearful of poor countries, but I

realized that they are simply living with less and having a great

time doing it.

 

The junk we carry around has become an insignia for ego. The more

stuff we have the greater we are. We don't respect wisdom, virtue, or

renunciation. We just respect the one with the biggest ego and the

biggest wallet (or debt). Bowing down to touch the feet of a poor,

but well versed Indian saint has taught me many things. When you are

bowing down you can't drag all the stuff with you. Some of it will

have to drop to the ground. I have also learned that words of wisdom

coming from a rag of a human being are far more precious than a whole

store full of stuff.

 

Black Friday Shopping Mania Sunday, Nov 30 2008

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