Christmas at Walmart. Yay. I was there today and I noticed an abundance of people being entirely shitty to one another. Like shopping at Christmas already makes people snap at each other, but being in Walmart draws that feeling out to the nth degree and then takes kerosene and a match--make that a blowtorch--to it.
And when you aren't running into people being ho-ho-hateful to each other up and down the aisles, you're passing someone on a cell phone calling someone else in a huff, sarcasm spewing forth, muttering, "Hey, what did what's-her-name want for Christmas? Oh yeah?! Well I'm here and I need to get something because I'm not going back out, dammit! I don't care what it is, just tell me something to get!!!" Talk about the spirit of giving...more like the spirit of not giving a shit. Are we all just saving face? Has Christmas become a hollow gesture which amounts to a little more than keeping up appearances for the sake of the season?
Then, of course, there's the Black Friday horror story. Some young clerk at a Walmart got trampled and killed when he went to open up the doors the day after Thanksgiving. He was a temp even, hired specifically to work the event! And an eight-month pregnant lady in the crowd lost her baby in the madness. I say madness because two people died and when the officials at Walmart tried to go through and kick everyone out to close the store down and oh, I don't know, investigate a freaking MURDER, people got angry because they stood in line, dammit, and Walmart owed them a discounted flat screen!!
I remember one year I worked at Toys-R-Us and I about wanted to slit my own wrists by the time I quit. People would bring in their young children and do Christmas shopping for other family members, then not buy their own child anything. Recipe for disaster much? Then they'd get really pissed off at their kid for crying or throwing a fit because he or she wasn't getting a toy. What the HELL do you expect? Your six-year-old isn't the paragon of self-control! You can't pull a little child into the Heaven on Earth of Toydom and somehow expect them to keep it together when you buy all kinds of crap for everyone and don't get them one measly little toy. Uh, duh.
Anyway, some lady actually bit another lady's hand to get the last Barbie from her. She BIT her. Hard enough to draw blood. Forget entirely that we live in a society where biting someone can give you a disease, but for Christ's sake (pun intended), WHAT THE HELL? Who wants to give their kid a gift they had to physically assault someone else to get? "Here sweetie! I know how much you wanted this Barbie. Be careful though, there might be a little AIDS on it..." That chick was arrested, by the way. Can you imagine having to tell your child you got arrested for that? Has everyone lost their damn minds???
If there is anything religious or spiritual or good still tied to this holiday, someone (many someones) has (have) apparently forgotten it. The point isn't buying shit and making sure everyone gets some shit so they'll STFU. At least, that's not what I thought the point was...
And when I went to check out at the grocery store (not Walmart), I noticed myself getting snappy with my husband, too. Perhaps it was the general tension in the air finally osmosing into my bones. After that, we had to make a pact with each other to be respectful no matter how annoyed we got. Who has to make promises like that when they do something so simple as go to a store in December?
We haven't just lost sight of what is important; we've replaced it with something so terribly unimportant, all it can do is piss us all off.
So about 92.6 percent of my shopping this year was done online...come to think of it, this is probably why a lot of things can now be done online--ordering pizza, refilling prescriptions, getting photo prints made--so we can remove the 'dealing with other people' part of the equation. Pretty soon we won't have to make physical contact with anyone else ever. I can't decide if I'm sad about the way things are headed in our society or not, truthfully. Thank God's brother Bob we don't slather any other holidays with our putrid "spirit of giving"...
My father hasn't celebrated Christmas for about six years now. I used to think he was some kind of Grinch. It hurts me to say this, but today I think I finally understood him.
2 comments:
Well, your first (and primary) mistake was going to Wal-Mart. You need to learn the Jedi mind trick I have mastered, in which you can drive by a known Wal-Mart location but see nothing but a vacant lot, no building, no cars, no people. Use the force to obscure the reality, young Paduan.
But no, I know what you mean. That's why I've done all my shopping (mostly) online, too. And I think you're right, for most people Christmas has become about saving face. But I still feel good finding a gift for someone that I know they're going to love (like some of the stuff I found for you!), so I know that for me it's about the giving and spreading happiness (even if it is with stuff) and showing people that I was thinking about them. As long as I know I feel pure about the process, that's all that matters. Plus, I don't participate in mob tramplings, either. That tends to keep me feeling like a pretty good person.
You are about one of the only people that can deliver a funny line about mob tramplings...you know that, right??
I feel the same way you do about presents and purity. I wish everyone else did, too.
Post a Comment