Let me backtrack a bit. Last week, I went to Wal-mart, not to participate in the piranha feeding frenzy that is Black Friday, but to buy food. Groceries. You know, the stuff you eat to survive because you actually need it? There, I was jostled and pushed without so much as an "excuse me," "pardon me," etc. People descended on the goodies for sale like a swarm of locusts devouring a crop. They were hateful towards each other, especially if someone encroached on "their" territory. I swear, anthropologists would have a field day studying this phenomenon because it was Darwinism at its finest. People had reverted to an animal state. It boggled my mind!
So I made my way to Layaway, and there, the poor cashier was frazzled. She's a nice lady. I know this because I've gone through her check-out lane before, and she's always friendly and sociable. But that day, she looked like she had just survived a week in a Lord of the Flies boot-camp. Having worked in the shoe department at Sears once upon a time, and after seeing the madness in the rest of the store, I understood her pain. So, I was friendly to her. You should always be friendly to people, even to people who work in jobs that you think are beneath you, because they have to deal with your obnoxious ass, okay? Anyway, I was friendly to her and over the course of our conversation, she tells me that Black Friday wouldn't be so bad if customers weren't such jerks. But, she said to me, she had been there for nearly twelve hours, and in all that time nobody told her thank you, nobody said please, and it was just gimme, gimme, gimme all day long. People treated her like dung beneath their shoes. Remembering my time working Black Friday, I knew she was telling the truth. People are complete and utter assholes on Black Friday.
I had never considered it before, but one of my friends pointed out that this step backwards in human evolution takes place the day after Thanksgiving. Think about that. The day after we supposedly give thanks for all that we have, we find ourselves pepper spraying people in the face just to buy tons of crap that we don't have. And if you enjoy participating in this insanity, you can't possibly convince me that you're having fun. I saw the looks on peoples' faces. That wasn't a look of enjoyment. That was a look of someone intent on their mission. It was like they were the soldiers caught in downtown Mogadishu right after the chopper crashes in Black Hawk Down, okay? For Christ's sake, literally, Christmas shopping should not be a blood sport!
I might not be inclined to gripe so much if this were confined to Black Friday, but the truth of the matter is, this insanity continues until December 31st. I was at Sam's Club today, and the cashier there had a similar story. Rude douche nozzles had run her ragged from the moment she clocked in. Someone even tried to say they gave her more money than they really did because they didn't want to pay for their entire grocery bill. But eavesdropping on the fellow shoppers, I realized people don't just treat strangers with so much hatred. They treat family that way too. "No, I said two!" a woman screeched at her husband, who was grabbing a 4-pack of butter.
What the hell is wrong with you people?
Do you all even remember what this time of the year is supposed to be about? Christmas. Okay, let me spell it out for you. The birth of Christ. Our Lord and Savior. The guy who preached peace. The guy who preached that we should love our neighbor. I can only imagine the look of staunch horror on his face when he sees the animal savagery that ensues every year, and in his name!
This is the time of the year, now more than the rest of the year, I would argue, that we're supposed to be kind to each other and remember life's blessings. We should be drinking hot cocoa, playing board games, watching cheesy feel-good Christmas movies as a family. We should be giving money or time to those who are less fortunate. We should smile and ask a weary cashier at Wal-mart how their day is going. Scoff if you wish, but a little ounce of kindness and compassion can really make a difference in someone's life. Even if they're a stranger. I think that, more than anything, embodies the things Jesus stood for. It sure as hell wasn't clotheslining a person for an iPad 2. So, here's a reminder about what Christmas is really about:
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