“It
Seems We Are Not Much Changed, After All”
11/24/12
To
my very, very dearest friends, and always constant, kind readers,
Less than forty-eight hours ago, we were as a
grateful Nation, in some piety foregathered in our homes; surrounded by family
members and dearest friends whom we would hold ever-close. To join together—briefly—as members of a
contented, ‘tribe’, sheltered, safe, secure; to share with them a special meal,
symbolic of a time so long ago; but really, even further in the past, when Man
dwelt in caves.
It was—for that one, particular day—a time to
welcome, and to share, and to see that all were fed enough to make them want to
stay and fall asleep! How glad we were
too see our loved ones thus happily satisfied.
Although we live in times of unparalleled immediacy,
and luxury beyond the dreams of those brave men who wrote our Constitution
(though, through their vision, hopes, and sense of unequalled, ‘rightness’, it
was thought that—with freedom—God and Science would elevate the common man to a
more civilized and reasoned state), our day of, ‘Thanksgiving’, harks to ages
ancient and past.
Within us—still—are trace elements of a Puritan
piety. Though—in, ‘thanking’, God (on
this, particular day!) for all we have—we could as effortlessly offer up our
prayers to Gaia, the, ‘three-faced, Earth Mother’, guarantor of the harvest,
and a time of plenty.
For a short while, many of us were happy, content to
relax within the companionship of the collected and reassembled tribe; a time
of laughter, of sharing abundant food and drink (always of paramount importance
to primitive Man!).
And further—while thus gathered—to eat and drink,
and eat, and drink to point of sleepy stupefaction. That—too—is necessary in any tribal
celebration (as for them…the next, uncertain, ‘filling’, meal might be days
away!).
Oh to be sure, there were the inevitable clashes of
temper, of food spilled and scattered; of trying to accommodate—perhaps—too many
within a confined space; the discord of children and pets running underfoot and
everywhere; of hungry people, waiting with some ill-humor should the meal—somehow—be
delayed.
Of course, there were opposing views on politics,
religion, and, the economy. With not
nearly enough seating room for everyone.
And then to add to the din, the clattering of pots
and pans, of dishes and glasses hastily brought out; the dropping of utensils,
and a kind of planned for/unplanned chaos.
Where to put the food, the napkins, and the elbow-jostling of trying to
serve nearly everyone at once!
The period of groggy senescence that always follows
when one has over-eaten into oblivion, and now merely wants to find somewhere
to, ‘lie down’, speaks eloquently—as well—to a more primitive past.
There then has to be a usually disgruntled few who
have to try to clean up the messes, and to, put, everything away, AND, wash all
the plates, utensils, pots, pans, and assorted serving pieces left—not forgotten—but
intentionally, ‘unacknowledged’, by those now readying to leave for home, or,
those who are more that half-asleep, trying to watch football on TeeVee.
At day’s end, all should be satisfied, and happy
fed. It is axiomatic, though, that in more than one household, more than one or
two plangent sighs of relief are uttered that the, ‘holiday’, is now officially
over again until next year! “Next year,
its your sister’s turn to cook!”
Directly following this time of pleasant (for the
most part!) sharing, is a most strange phenomenon that is, “Black Friday”.
The, ‘day of Thanksgiving’, amiable, and almost
tolerable (at worst), is—in less than twenty-four hours—given over the worst in
Man, where greed, selfishness, anger, lack of patience, a complete disregard
for any civility, temper surge to the fore, fuelled by an uncertain economy.
How
awful can, “Black Friday”, be?
Think of five a.m. lines that stretch behind a store
for a good five hundred yards. Think of
pushing. Tempers. Persons suffering
assault and arrest for attempting to, ‘break line’.
Think about an onrushing mob of people, shoving at
each other to get through the store’s front doors when they open. Think of people being knocked down, trampled,
injured.
Think of armed police, throwing am alleged, ‘shoplifter’,
to the ground with such force as to make him bloody and unconscious.
Think of crates and boxes of merchandise being
attacked full on, by a screaming, pushing mob.
Think—perhaps—of chaos one would think more
befitting the end of the world. Think of
battles over parking. Battles at the
check-out line. Fist fights, even.
Think of goods being thrown like weapons. Children knocked to the ground by shove of
cart.
Think of the reckless greed. Of impulse over-spending.
Think of hands AND fist raised into the air, screamed signals to, ‘smash-and-grab’,
whatever may be (on sale) to hand.
These giant stores—in minutes—had been reduced to
nothing so much than, ‘retail’, war zones.
While I quite naively never would have thought it
even remotely possible, yet—yesterday, on my computer—I saw a number of videos
that were nothing more than variations on a theme regarding the, ‘Duality’, of
Man; capable—simultaneously—of great beauty AND utter bestiality.
Since mere words can hardly seek to adequately
illustrate this mass, ‘flight from reason’, I will attempt to provide for you—my
very, dearest friends, and loyal readers—with a clickable link to a short video
that—shamefully—speaks for itself; and…there are other videos, should you
choose to stare at them in rapt horror.
Strangely—to me, anyway—was that amid all the
confusion and violence, were people laughing and smiling, either amused at the
antics of the mob, OR, laughing, eager to willingly join the fight.
This is almost like some kind of, ‘Jungian,
Collective Unconscious’, primitive behavior that—indeed—seems to have its roots
in the survival of earliest Man: that which attends to the thrill of the hunt,
and the joy of the kill.
And the notion that ALL this is in some kind of
preparation for gift-giving during—perhaps— considered THE most holy, religious
time of the year…’Christmas’, ‘Hanukkah’, or, ‘Kwanza’, simply beggars my credulity.
But,
perhaps I should not be so surprised after all.
Some ten years ago—now—when I was still employed, I
had a co-worker who had a spouse, three young children, and, a rather large,
extended family to have to shop for, for the Christmas Holiday.
We both worked the night shift, from 11:45 p.m.,
until the next morning at 8:15.
While she never requested to take, ‘Thanksgiving’,
off, she always took the night of, ‘Black Friday’, off, and further, always
arranged to leave work before 6:00 a.m. Friday morning, so that she and a
cousin could, ‘hit’, the mall as early as possible.
Now mind you, she and her cousin had prepared (in
advance!), and elaborate, ‘game plan’, to be able to get as much shopping as
was possible done within a very specific time frame.
My dear friends, I knew how much she earned on the
job as we were all paid about the same amount, and so—well knew—why she had to
try to save as much money as possible, to enable her to buy the most gifts.
But sometime before she left work that Friday
morning, I began to detect a certain nervous energy about her, impatient, and
rather easily annoyed. You could see it
in her eyes, and in the involuntary movements of her arms and hands.
The pupils in her eyes would become larger, and,
about her was a faint sheen of sweat, a clear indicator that her adrenaline and
cortisol levels were rising.
Once—before she was ready to leave work one
Friday--we happened to have a quiet space, sufficient so that we could go out
to the front porch to smoke a couple of cigarettes.
When, in conversation, I happened to remark
something to the effect that, ‘herds of wild, insane horses’, would not be able
to drag me to the mall; to maddeningly try to find someplace to park the car;
to join the rush at the doors; to fight with the crowd, pushing and shoving; to
run—in general—amok, here and there, to sift-through upended and untended piles
of merchandise; and further, to have to deal with exhausted, snotty, and
mean-spirited salespersons. And THEN, to
try to somehow find where I had parked the car (while—easily—there would always
seem to be ten, other rushed, and angry drivers verbally coveting my parking
space!).
While I was saying this to her, I could see that she
was getting somehow, ‘pumped up’, for the morning’s shopping, and her smile
became actually quite feral.
She told me that, while—basically—she HAD to go
shopping on, “Black Friday”, to save money, she went because she, ‘loved’, the
fight! She liked pushing people about,
in the frenzy to buy a particular thing; even, to get into, ‘tugs-of-war’, with
other shoppers (especially in the toy stores!).
She actually relished the name-calling, the shoving and pushing to get
through the doors.
Simply speaking, she was not satisfied unless—in getting
what she wanted—to, ‘figuratively’, come-away with the taste of blood in her
mouth! In these, ‘battles’, often,
merchandise would be broken, ripped-apart, thrown carelessly in a wide arc to
the side, discarded in the search for more!
Personally, my very, dearest friends, as I have
aged, become ill, am usually in great pain, and am anxious and agoraphobic,
besides, ‘I’, could never be moved to visit the mall (or, any really large
store!) ANY time of the year.
I don’t imagine I could now go to the mall during
the holidays even if they were giving everyone new cars! Or, paying-off all my indebtedness. Or, offering me a monthly stipend sufficient for
me to live in utter security and comfort the rest of my days. (Well, o-kay…maybe
then!). But then again, can you imagine
the absolute carnage of people and cars.
I am sure—in that case—that there would be many, serious injuries, and
probably a number of actual fatalities!
No, my dear friends, what holiday, ‘shopping’, that
I might do (provided—of course—that I even HAD the money for it!) would be done
online, from the relative comfort, security and safety of my own home.
And
I should know.
One year—about fifteen years ago, now—despite having
taken a major fall at work earlier, I thought I would go holiday shopping (for
the next year!), on December 26th., the morning AFTER Christmas. I
believe I managed to, ‘hit’, three, different stores on my way home.
Yes, everything was incredibly cheap, having been
marked down again, and again.
Yes, I bought about a metric TON of shit. And—in the process, somehow—completely and
utterly overspent myself.
But, by then, the stores looked like nuclear test
sites; merchandise was scatter all over the shelves, and, all over the floor,
blocking the aisles.
The customers were animals in human guise; I cannot
remember just how many times someone ran their shopping cart into me. The salespersons were beyond caring, and more
than a number of both shoppers and salespersons were argumentative, rude, and
verbally abusive.
Shopping became a sort of, ‘smash-and-grab’; items
were actually thrown into near-distant carts, and even over the top of
shelves! People (and I hesitate to even
grave them with any, ‘humanness’) kicked merchandise out of the way; displays
were toppled-over. Children were
crying. There was no use to even ask for
assistance, as most of the employees had retreated to the relative safety of
the enclosed manager’s office.
Out in the parking lot, I saw a few, ‘fender-benders’,
and a LOT of very near misses. On the
way to my car, drivers, ‘stalked’, me like sharks, to be the first one to get to
my parking space.
When I happened to cross a row of cars (as I had
quite forgotten where—exactly—I had parked), I was treated to a barrage of
invectives that would make sailors blush.
And
all for what?
Everything I bought languished in stacked grocery
bags that lined my bedroom walls, proceeding to get extremely dusty, annoying,
and always in-the-way. Finally, I couldn’t stand it, and began to wrap gifts
sometime around the end of July; somehow, I had forgotten that when you buy a
ton of stuff, you later have to wrap a ton of stuff! (a thing I never liked,
anyway).
It amounted to nothing less than a, ‘mercy killing’,
when—at last—I finally managed to box everything up, and mailed it all out the
last week of November.
Of
course, the Post Office was another story.
The
question remains, my most precious friends: will I EVER do that again?
I believe that I can now say without fear of
contradiction, not just, “NO!”, but, ‘double-Hell-no!’. Even if I did have the
money. “No, times ten to the hundredth
power!”
For the most part, the, ‘things’, that I would like
for the holidays cannot be bought or found in any store, or in any mall.
Further…there is absolutely nothing. ‘out there’,
that I want, even remotely sufficient for me to don body armor, down enough
coffee, or medications to be able to even reasonably hope to cope with the pure
Hell that is, ”Black Friday!”
But…what
do ‘I’ know?
Your needs, habits and preferences may well be
starkly different from mine. Perhaps you
may not mind the melee. Perhaps you
enjoy the bargains. I could be wrong,
you know.
My question to you—my dearest, kindest friends, and
ever-loyal readers—is: if you DO shop for the holidays, how do you do it? What are your strategies? What are your, ’game plans’? How do you manage?
Please respond in the comment section, below. I make no judgements, and am, ‘open’, to
suggestions. And, very much look forward
to your replies!
Meanwhile, my friends, if you do go out holiday
shopping, please, oh please do be careful!
I wish for you no pain, or, ’lessened’, pain; a
respite from depression or despair. I
wish you freedom from want or need. And
to be in full, surrounded by family members, good friends, and pets who love
you for the wonderful person that you are!
I wish you quiet and peaceful days, free from
hardship, or calamity. I wish you be
comfortably warm-enough, or cool. I wish
for you balmy afternoons, and that you be better able to relax, and to enjoy
what life has to offer! And at day’s
end, I wish you sound and restorative sleep, watched-over by gentle angels.
And…I wish for you and yours a most peaceful, happy,
pleasant and enjoyable holiday season!
And—as
always—please, please know that I love you dearly!
‘Zahc’/Charles
