Consumerpalooza
Is it too much to hope that the regularly scheduled orgiastic feeding frenzy of christmas hyperconsumerism might be mitigated this year by fears of financial meltdown, or is $1.95 gas enough of a temptation to sway the questioning believers? For christmas ought not be capitalized unless one speaks of the religious celebration; what the secular society fetes is worship of the god Want, in the person of a fat old man on a coca-cola bottle; and it is no surprise then that during this, the darkest and - at least here - coldest and miserable time of the year, the entire world can find no fitter reason for being than mallwalking and melting through credit cards as quickly as possible. I cannot say I have never been guilty of Want, and I certainly often confuse Give with Love. This year I have chosen instead a christmas fast. I'm tired of the need to buy, buy, buy, as if all worth in life is caught up in Owning; and the Things simply clutter the space around me, crowding out the room I need to breathe. The apartment my single roommate and I live in is nearly the same size as the apartment my host family in Italy occupied, and there we had three more people and a cat in the same suite of rooms. I don't mind that what I have the most of, is books; that to me is an acceptable cost and desire worth having. That I have twice the number of shoes as my roommate is sad.
Pardon the November meltdown; it is raining here and cold, calling for sleet; NaNo has gone well thus far but is far from over; and we have started the rotation of christmas music on the radio and on the Muzak at work.
Pardon the November meltdown; it is raining here and cold, calling for sleet; NaNo has gone well thus far but is far from over; and we have started the rotation of christmas music on the radio and on the Muzak at work.