I shop with a friend once a week, and with six malls to choose from we get to see everything there is in retail. For a Thursday in December at the mall on our most recent visit, the experience was surreal to say the least.
None of the children were happy; in fact I saw lots of teary faces on bodies being dragged about by disagreeable parents. Stores were empty, and aisles were wide and unpopulated enough to do cartwheels in. Even Santa packed it in early considering the mall was staying open until 11:00. I didn’t buy a thing, but my friend found a coat at 40% off.
People seem to be disheartened by the commercialism associated with Christmas, and the world outlook has tarnished the religious aspect over the years. The result is a date on the calendar that has reached the apex of frivolity and is now on the roller coaster ride down into the ground level track of indifference. Kids get gifts year round, and then we tack on another date at the end of the year in which we somehow feel obligated to pack a year’s worth of gift buying into one, and we attribute it to somebody who was in reality a sainted humanitarian given a red suit persona by Coca Cola.
Besides the ho-ho-hooey, on the shelves at the cubbyholes we call stores in our malls, nativity sets vie for our attention. The hilarious greeting cards that sing inane carols share space with pious solemnity featuring an umpteenth rendition of holy events from long ago that may or may not have actually happened in December, depending on whom you ask.
Maybe that’s the problem with the holiday season: we’ve lost track of the truth, so we are shopping in a foggy lie.
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